Changes in Supplement Use

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I take dietary supplements, and so do most of the people I know. We’re not alone. Using data from the NHANES data in 1999 and 2012, researchers compared how many people used supplements and what type of supplements they used (1).

Close to 38,000 subjects were included in the study. The percentage of people using supplements remained fairly stable over the time span at 52%; what changed was the types of supplements people took. Multivitamin-multimineral (MVMM) dropped 6% from 37% to 31%. There were some increases: vitamin D supplementation (other than from MVMM) increased from 5.1 . . .

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How Long Can Third-Hand Smoke Last?

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Researchers were interested in finding out how long the residual particulates and substances last in people who quit smoking and in their environment. They recruited 90 smokers to participate in the study and tested the verified quitters for third-hand smoke pollutants at baseline, one week, and one, three, and six months after they quit.

The subjects were tested in two ways: their fingers and their urine were checked for metabolites of third-hand smoke. They also tested the dust in their environment. As you might expect, the bodies of the ex-smokers saw a dramatic decline in smoking metabolites . . .

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The Tenacity of Third-Hand Smoke

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Recently I found a moving box full of my mother’s recipes. When I opened the box, I was hit with the smell of stale, old, cigarette smoke. My mother was a smoker for over 45 years, so the smell makes sense. What you should also know is that she died over 20 years ago. That’s how long the smells can linger from the residual parts of cigarette smoke.

Cleaning her home after she died, I had to use a full strength cleaner without diluting it in water, then rinse. One pail of water would last for a section . . .

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Broken Bones and Heel Spurs

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Two questions I regularly get asked about bones: What can I do to help heal broken bones? And what can I do about heel spurs? Without question, you must see a doctor to get a diagnosis. This is something you shouldn’t self-diagnose or try to “handle” it yourself. Once you’ve done that, here’s what I would do.

For broken bones, once the bones are set and you have a cast or other immobilizing device, there are some nutrients that may help:

  • Glucosamine: 1,500 – 3,000 mg per day. Seem odd? Not . . .

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Baby Bones

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If you read the message regularly, you know I frequently mention my pretend grandson Riley. He’s 18 months old and he has one speed: fast. As a result, he occasionally falls. While sometimes he does fall hard enough to hurt himself, he doesn’t break any bones as I might if I fell that often. Why not?

Most of a baby’s bones begin as cartilage. A baby has about 300 bones at birth. As they grow, their bones begin to get solid; the cartilage cells gradually become bone cells by absorbing minerals such as calcium. Some bones fuse . . .

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Why Bones Need Stress

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Something unusual happened during a recent run: I fell. Nothing serious, just a few scrapes and a sprained wrist. It got me to thinking that I haven’t talked about bones in a long time; there are 206 of them in adults, and they have to last us our entire lifetime. This week’s messages are all about bones. I’ll approach it from a different way than you can find by doing an Internet search.

The critical thing to understand is that bone is live tissue. We tend to think of it as something solid, and it is. But . . .

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Who Can You Trust?

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With the Internet, health information is everywhere. That creates the health hooliganism that I talked about on Thursday. Everyone seems to be shouting that “This is good, that’s bad, and everyone who doesn’t agree with me (or us) has some form of hidden agenda.” It’s not just limited to the anti-something people. Scientists have joined together to start shouting their view about the sugar or food industry. How should you evaluate who’s saying what? Here’s what I do.

I check to see if the person has the background they claim to have. Do they . . .

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Science Hooligans

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Seth Godin is an original Internet marketer and entrepreneur whose books and blog I really enjoy. His post from Monday articulately identified the problem that exists in the health field today, and I urge you to read it in its entirety (1).

This past weekend in Peoria, I was answering someone’s question about soy when another person began to give his opinion on the topic. It wasn’t related to soy itself but rather GMOs, another hot topic in health. Sometimes I can’t slough off a challenge without a response, but . . .

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A Reasonable Discussion

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I spent the past weekend with thousands of people in Peoria. It’s always refreshing to talk face-to-face and answer questions. Occasionally I’m challenged, but I don’t mind because it forces me to do more research to find answers for things I don’t know. But it’s not the science that presents the biggest challenge; it’s the people interpreting the science that’s the challenge. I’m going to use what I read and saw Monday morning to help illustrate the issue.

I’ll begin with a network TV morning show. The show did . . .

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Getting Rid of Constipation

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Adults, children, even infants get constipated, and no one likes it. Over time, I developed a combination of nutrients that seems to work for many people—not every person but most. Is it based on absolute science? I would be hard-pressed to say that the research on occasional constipation is definitive. There are over 22,000 citations in PubMed for every type of cause and medication for many types of constipation, but there’s no solid research on occasional constipation. I developed this combination based on the physiology and biochemistry involved, combined with years of experience.

The solution I . . .

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