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.

Fake News Keys

When and Who: Spotting Fake Health News

Let’s continue our look at how to check health news that you aren’t sure is real or fake. I hope you’ve had a chance to read the article by Stephen Hedley; if not, click the reference below to see what he taught his fifth grade class. One of my readers said he passed the article […]

FakeNewsKid

Spotting Fake Health News

Would you like to know whether a health news story is fake? Should you be worried and stop eating the deadly food they’ve identified? On the other hand, should you be excited? You know, if you do this one thing, you can lose your belly fat, or this exotic fruit prevents Alzheimer’s disease! This week […]

Sleeptime

Sleep More and Quit Eating Sooner

Sleep more, eat the same, and lose weight. Seriously? That’s what researchers are going to try to find out. At this point, there’s little question that for most people, lack of sleep messes with the circadian rhythms and negatively impacts glucose metabolism. But a different research team is looking at another element: how long you […]

Teddybear

Can You Lose Weight by Sleeping More?

That doesn’t seem to make any sense; you’re not going to be as active because you’re sleeping, so how can that help you lose weight? Well, if you’re sleeping you’re not eating, but there must be more to it than that. Let’s go back to the SCN, the pacemaker of rhythms. Researchers have found that […]

Insomnia

Could Your Rhythms Be Keeping You Fat?

You eat well and you exercise, but you still can’t lose any weight. What if the answer was in the natural rhythms of your body? I’m not talking about dance moves; I’m talking about circadian rhythms, the natural 24-hour cycles based on day and night. Since we can pretty much control the amount of light […]

Baby

The Bottom Line on Folic Acid

Based on the studies covered in the Tuesday and Thursday posts, you may be confused about what you should do when it comes to folic acid, especially if you’re pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant. I read a lot of research to come up with this analysis and here’s what I found. There are three […]

Folic Acid

Prenatal Nutrition: More on Folic Acid

The second study on folic acid supplementation before pregnancy examined similar blood and red blood cell folic acid levels at different times during pregnancy and in cord blood (1). The difference was that half of the subjects were randomly provided with 400 mcg folic acid to take during their second and third trimesters. As you […]

Baby

Prenatal Nutrition: Should You Worry About Folic Acid?

I’ve been working on updating the research for the second edition of the Healthy Babies CD, and that includes nutrients such as probiotics, vitamin D, and one of the most important nutrients, folic acid. Since folic acid was added to cereal grains in 1998, there have been significant reductions in neural tube defects, but folic […]

Lifestyle

BMI, WHR, and Lifestyle

The study we’ve been examining is interesting on so many levels: large numbers of subjects; new statistical techniques due in large part to progress in computing capabilities; genetic analysis that allows for rapid analysis and identification of polymorphisms. It’s all very exciting. You’re probably anticipating a “but” coming and you’d be correct. This study demonstrated […]

Waist-Hip Ratio

Waist-Hip Ratio vs. BMI

In Tuesday’s message, I said researchers used a unique approach to answering the question of whether waist-hip ratio (WHR) is associated with cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes regardless of BMI. They found 48 genes which were associated WHR, a unique approach using the genetic information with Mendelian randomization of epidemiological data. If that isn’t […]