Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
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All Signs Lead to Vegetables
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had many questions about vegan diets. Coincidentally Paula recommended a couple of HuffPost articles on rising CO2 levels and the effect on crops. Then someone asked me what I thought about the movie “What the Health” available on Netflix or online; it’s purported to be a documentary on […]
The Bottom Line on Veggies and Carbs
Go ahead and finish your oatmeal and drink your protein-kale smoothie—you do need those veggies. Meanwhile I’ll put the PURE study in perspective. This is a large study that looks at the economics of food as well as the health benefits. In a separate publication, the analysis of the data focused on the cost of […]
PURE Headline 2: Don’t Bother with More Veggies?
Using the same data base of subjects in the PURE Study, researchers examined the vegetable, fruit, and legume intake on total mortality, mortality, and major cardiac events such as heart attacks. The most important finding was that higher vegetable, fruit, and legume intake was associated with a reduced risk of mortality and morbidity. Simply put, […]
PURE Headline 1: Do Carbs Kill?
Never a dull moment when it comes to health news: now they’re asking if you should choose fat rather than carbs. The research study was called PURE: Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology, and you’ll be hearing more about it. Over 150,000 people from five continents, 18 countries, and 613 different communities were included in the study. […]
The Bottom Line on E-Cigarettes
Vaping e-cigarettes is supposed to be better than smoking cigarettes because the toxic chemicals will be gone. That may be true for the chemicals released from tobacco and paper, but the third area of concern is the e-liquids that make up the flavor component of e-cigarettes. The marketing tactic often focuses on the variety of […]
Update: E-Cigarettes Put Lungs at Risk
The second study presented at the European Respiratory Conference on e-cigarettes that caught my attention was a study done in Sweden. Researchers questioned over 30,000 people, randomly selected from the Swedish population. The purpose was to ask the subjects about smoking: did they smoke, what did they smoke, and what type of respiratory symptoms did […]
Update: E-Cigarette Safety
As the European Respiratory Society held their annual convention, several research studies made the health news, including e-cigarettes and vaping. The appeal of e-cigarettes is that they seem to be safe–you’re not actually burning tobacco with its associated chemicals and inhaling that into your lungs. E-cigarettes remove all that bad stuff and associated negative health […]
B6, B12, and Lung Cancer
The overwhelming message from the study I’ve been reviewing this week: don’t smoke cigarettes. Period. That’s the true cause of most cases of lung cancer. There was no increase in lung cancer in subjects taking high doses of B6 or B12 who never smoked or in those who quit more than 10 years before the […]
Behind the Misleading B Vitamin Headlines
Headlines are designed to be provocative. With so many sources of news to choose from, something must get you to click on that link. The problem is when the articles and posts are misleading and, in some cases, just wrong. There were primarily two things wrong about the two online articles I cited in Tuesday’s […]
Do Vitamins B6 and B12 Cause Cancer in Men?
The headline in The Atlantic said: “Vitamin B6 and B12 Supplements Appear to Cause Cancer in Men.” The Huffington Post said: “Men: Taking Vitamins B6 and B12 Could Increase Your Risk of Lung Cancer.” There were few news sources that didn’t pick up this provocative headline. As you might expect, I started to get questions […]
