Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
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Holiday Eating: The Best Solution So Far
In our quest to find the best holiday eating strategy, we may have been looking at the wrong metric. Prior researchers have been looking at the subjects reporting of how well they stuck to their eating habits and exercise program. The final study looked at a hard metric: body weight. Here’s what they did. Researchers […]
Is a Relaxed Holiday Eating Plan Better?
The Portuguese Weight Control Registry is similar to the National Weight Control Registry. While the amount lost is different, 11 pounds, the members still have to have kept the weight off at least a year. Researchers asked what techniques participants used for weight maintenance, comparing weekdays versus weekends and holidays versus non-holidays. The criteria were […]
Should You Have a Strict Holiday Eating Strategy?
Tis the season for gaining weight. It began on Thanksgiving, but we’re in it big time now. If you’ve lost weight and want to make sure you don’t see it again, what do you do? Let’s review some of the research on strategies that people who’ve lost weight and maintained it have used. The first […]
Will the Diet of Your Culture Improve Your Microbiome?
Does the diet of your ancestors impact your microbiome? A review examined whether the common foods found in specific cultures can benefit people of that culture who are following a diet high in refined carbohydrate and low in fiber, as is common in the U.S. Let’s take a look. The Gold Standard: the Mediterranean Diet […]
Does Fiber Improve Your Microbiome?
Now let’s look at the results of increasing dietary fiber for people with diabetes. Researchers recruited over 50 type 2 diabetics (T2D) for a 12-week study. The control group was given standard recommendations for a healthy diabetic diet. All current medications were maintained and both groups received acarbose, a starch blocker. The experimental group was […]
How Your Microbiome Affects Exercise Benefits
It seems every day, there are several studies on the microbiome and its impact on our health. At this point, they’re preliminary but the picture is emerging that as goes your gut, so goes your health. I’ve picked three new studies to review this week. As an exercise physiologist who’s done research on this topic, […]
Prescription Fish Oil: Questions Remain
The REDUCE-IT clinical trial formed the basis for the expanded recommendations for use of Vascepa, the prescription fish-oil medication. This was an expensive trial, involving 11 countries and hundreds of medical centers with 999 physicians who recruited subjects, collected data, and kept track of the subjects for close to five years. With over 8,000 subjects, […]
Primary vs. Secondary Meds
One of the key questions for the FDA advisory panel to consider was whether the prescription fish oil was a primary preventer of cardiovascular disease or a secondary preventer. What’s the difference? Primary prevention of CVD would impact the disease and stop events before they occurred in the subjects taking the fish-oil medication. Secondary prevention […]
Prescription Fish Oil Update
“This Fish-Oil Heart Drug Could Be Big, Could Be Huge.” That was the headline in a well-known financial report after a Food and Drug Administration panel unanimously voted in favor of an expanded use for the prescription fish-oil drug. I mentioned this was a possibility when I first talked about Vascepa in October. The FDA […]
Can Cilantro Help with Seizures?
Paula and I dislike cilantro; it tastes like soap to us. According to research, that’s a genetic trait. However, cilantro appears to have some very interesting qualities relating to seizures and neurological disorders. Here’s the study. A research group examined the components of the herb Coriandrum sativum. This herb, commonly known as cilantro, has been […]
