Dr. Chet’s Health Memos

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Apothecary

The Bottom Line on Human Fat as Medicine

The final question in our look at human fat is whether there are actual benefits to the use of human fat for human health. Human fat is primarily long-chain saturated fatty acids; we’re animals and that’s the type of fat animals make. There are some hormones present in fat tissue and probably other factors related […]

AxungiaHominis

The Benefits of Human Fat

Imagine that you woke up this morning with lower back pain; that’s not unusual for many people. You make it to your bathroom, pull out your nicely painted apothecary jar of human fat, and rub some into the painful areas. Or you have arthritis and you rub the human fat into your knees. No way, […]

PresidentTaft

How Are You Fixed for Axungia Hominis?

When the title of any article is written in Latin, you might think that what follows is probably complicated. How about if you knew that Axungia hominis simply means “human fat”? What follows isn’t complicated but it sure is surprising—at least it was to me. I read an excerpt from a forthcoming book I’m adding […]

MagicSupplement

Looking for Single-Nutrient Solutions

As you might expect, I get asked a lot of questions about health, especially diet and exercise. One of the similarities between questions is whether a specific nutrient is special or unique. When I do the research to learn about the nutrient, I’ve never found one that’s the be-all and end-all—not turmeric or echinacea or […]

Gardening

What Counts: Exercise or Movement?

This week is planting week around the house, so Paula and I will be working around the yard each day. What we won’t do is go to the gym to work out. In thinking about it, that raises the issue of the myth of physical activity: does yardwork count or do you have to get […]

RedTailedHawk

Fast Isn’t Just His Speed

There’s one more lesson we learned about how the staff helps keep the birds of prey from getting fat: one day a week, the birds fast. They simply don’t feed them anything other than what may make a mistake and crawl into their cages—which are the size of a living room. Fasting. What a concept! […]

TurkeyVulture

Do Birds of Prey Count Calories?

One of the things about bird of prey that surprised me was how light birds such as eagles and vultures really are; that’s a turkey vulture above. While the weight can vary depending on the origin of the eagles, they weigh 6–10 pounds. With a wingspan of 6–7 feet, they seem imposing, but in reality […]

BirdsOfPrey

What Can We Learn from Birds of Prey?

When Paula and I spent last week visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Summerville, South Carolina, one of the things we did was visit the Center for Birds of Prey, and it was a tremendous experience. We saw bald eagles, turkey vultures, horned owls, storks, and many more, including a truly amazing flying demo with […]

DrChetAndRiley

I’m Alive V2.50

When I opened my eyes yesterday, I said the same thing I’ve said for the past 26 years: I’m alive! When I wake on May 10th every year, it means I have at least one more year of life. It makes no sense in the real world, especially for a guy who talks about science […]

IntervalTraining

Move Up to Interval Training

Recently I watched an interview with the cast and production staff of the third John Wick movie, which will be released soon. What struck me was the physical preparation to do the action and fight scenes. When the third installment of the movie was announced, Keanu Reeves shouted to himself. “All right. It’s time for […]