Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
If it’s in the health news today, I’ll be writing about it as soon as I read the research, both old and new. With my email Health Memos, you’ll know more about making lifestyle choices that will help you get and keep good health. These free, concise updates on health are emailed to subscribers twice a week. Subscribe today and get a free MP3, in English or Spanish, of Dr. Chet’s Top Ten Tips—Small Changes for a Healthier Life.
Winterize Yourself
The official start to winter is quickly approaching, but for most of us the cold, wet, snowy, rainy weather has already begun. Today’s Memo contains some tips on how to winterize your body by focusing on basic nutritional supplementation. Water: Make sure you increase fluid intake during the winter. The humidity is lower because the […]
The Bottom Line on the 2018 Cholesterol Guidelines
In Thursday’s Memo, I talked about the 2018 Cholesterol Guidelines and evidence-based medicine, focusing on the physician side of the treatment discussion. But I believe that’s not the most important part of the discussion; I think the critical part is the patient side. Here’s why. The Cholesterol Guidelines focus on lifestyle changes first: a healthier […]
2018 Cholesterol Guidelines and Evidence-Based Medicine
I was encouraged by the AHA’s new cholesterol guidelines for one reason: the promotion of a joint decision between patient and physician on a treatment plan if one was necessary. That’s the basic tenet of evidence-based medicine: any and all treatment plans should take into consideration the wishes and desires of the patient. Many factors […]
AHA’s 2018 Guidelines on Cholesterol
Here’s what the American Heart Association announced this past weekend: a 120-page research-based paper on new cholesterol guidelines and how the guidelines were developed. The paper was five years in the making, involved twelve medical and physician associations, and includes ten documents to explain and summarize what the guidelines say. For the foreseeable future, these […]
Research Update on Coffee and Alzheimer’s Disease
I began drinking coffee when my mother put coffee with sugar and milk into my baby bottle—sounds shocking today, but that’s the way it was. Over 60 years later, I still love coffee, especially strong coffee. That’s why a health headline suggesting coffee may reduce Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions caught my attention. I had […]
Genetics or Lifestyle?
My dad died of a heart attack when he was 41. That fact has always been hanging over my head, especially when I had a heart blockage 16 years ago; the coronary artery was opened, I had a stent put in and have had no issues since. Was it my genes or was it lifestyle? […]
Vote!
I wouldn’t normally recommend skipping your exercise, but I’m making an exception: if your exercise time is the only time you can go vote today, choose voting. The health of our country is an important element of living a healthy life; we all need to be committed to keeping the U.S. system of government healthy. […]
Research Update: Gut on a Chip
In the final research paper I’ll review, the headline that caught my attention was “Probiotics are not always ‘good bacteria’.” That’s something I really hadn’t seen before so I had to check it out. In this case, I had to learn about a new technology called organ-on-a-chip. Over the past five years or so, researchers […]
Research Update on Probiotics and Staph Infections
One of the primary threats to our health is infection—specifically, antibiotic-resistant infections. We’ve all probably heard of people who became critically ill due to a life-threatening staph infection. A new research paper may give us insights on how we might be able to reduce the risk of getting infected with staphylococcus bacteria. Researchers selected a […]
Research Update on Probiotics and Healthy Skin
There has been so much research on probiotics published that it’s hard to keep myself informed, and you as well. This week I’ll summarize three recent studies on probiotics. Let’s begin with research on probiotics and skin conditions. Researchers examined the effects of three strains of probiotics on skin inflammation in mice: two strains of […]
