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.
The Data Must Make Sense
The data has to make sense before you do any type of statistical analysis; that’s why I always look at the mean and standard deviations. Let me explain what I found that seemed a little off in the Fried Potato Study. The authors divided the data into quintiles based on potato consumption from less then […]
Fried Potatoes: Hazardous to Your Health
The headline said: “Eating fried potatoes linked to higher risk of death.” My philosophy is that we can eat anything as long as we eat them in moderation, and I like French fries once in a while. My scientific curiosity tells me that I need to check this out. Let’s take a look at the […]
How to Reduce Disease-Related Pain
The first two memos on pain were relatively easy: joints and nerves. From that point forward, it can get very challenging: Lyme disease, irritable bowel syndrome, shingles—the list of diseases that lead to pain could go on and on. To complicate matters, with the concern over opioid addiction, many people in pain don’t want to […]
How to Reduce Nerve Pain
Do you ever have pain that shoots down your leg? How about your hands getting numb or painful? Ever get a headache because you’ve clenched your neck muscles so tight due to stress? More than likely, you’re experiencing some form of pain caused by a firing nerve, and these three examples are the ones I’m […]
How to Reduce Mechanical Pain
Every morning, the process of getting my body moving is challenging. My back is stiff and my knee is tender, on the border of painful. The longer I’m up, the better I move. After about 30 minutes, I can get my workout. It takes my knee 10 minutes to warm-up once I start running. I’m […]
The Bottom Line on Weight Loss Supplements
In the weight loss supplement debate, who is correct: proponents or opponents? Are any weight loss supplements beneficial? The answer is complicated. The opponents of weight loss supplements have the bulk of research on their side for two primary reasons. Weight loss studies using dietary supplements have a lack of consistency in the form of […]
Weight Loss Supplements: Pro vs. Con
The proponents and opponents of weight loss supplements both cite research to support their opinions. For the opponents, the claim is that there’s a lack of adequate research that supports the benefits of weight loss supplements, and the research that has been done is marginal. The proponents often overstate the benefits of studies that have […]
Are Weight Loss Supplements Fact or Fiction?
Last week I talked about fat—body fat—why it’s bad and what you can do about it, which raises a question about weight loss supplements. Will they give you a short-cut to getting rid of that fat, inside or outside? Can they help you or are they a waste of money? Worse yet, can they harm […]
The Bottom Line on Belly Fat
Our pretend daughter Jamie slow-cooked a roast for Memorial Day, and it was delicious, the best she’s ever done. She does them very well to begin with, so what made this one so good? Fat. It was a chuck roast. What made it so good was not the fat that you could see, it was […]
The Dangers of Undercover Fat
What’s lurking under your abdominal muscles, in and around your liver and other internal organs? Undercover fat, actually called intra-abdominal or visceral fat. It’s dangerous because visceral fat is more metabolically active and increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes among other diseases. What does “metabolically active” mean? Primarily, this fat makes […]
