Couch potatoes pay attention — you don't have to run miles each day to benefit your health. Indeed, recent research indicates that moderate levels of activity can significantly lower mortality risks.
Food & Nutrition
Again the mainstream media gets a study wrong, but they do have a great headline. The study concludes we should emphasize good and bad eating habits; it doesn't have any idea how many deaths are attributable to diet.
In a recent documentary, the religion scholar ate a small piece of human brains. That was inadvisable. Given the choice of good journalism or sensationalism, Dr. Aslan chose the latter. And from a health standpoint the decision carried risks.
A new study out this week found that American couples are having less sex as compared to couples of past generations. In addition, an earlier study concluded that today's millennial couples are also less sexually engaged, despite all the signs that would indicate just the opposite.
Soy has estrogen and anti-estrogen components. This study hoped to determine whether women with breast cancer should eat more or less soy. The study itself has good and bad points. But the media presented misleading headlines, which confused more than clarified. (What else is new?)
Not only can beliefs in cures based on folklore – such as traditional Chinese medicine – lead one to use ineffective or dangerous nostrums, they can also have a profound effect on the wildlife that's harvested to provide some of them. Here we acquaint readers with a few you may not have heard of.
Consumption of milk and other dairy products has been variously linked to a host of ills — especially by animal rights groups that want us all to avoid any animal products. Here's an example of the type of questionable data such groups often use to hoodwink unwary consumers.
Soda taxes aren't racist, yet precisely that case was made by a reporter for the newspaper. His position: Blacks and Hispanics consume more sugary beverages than whites and Asians, while whites and Asians drink more diet beverages than blacks and Hispanics. Because the tax does not apply to diet beverages, it is racist. Let's break this down.
Anorexia nervosa prompts physical changes in the brain, and researchers report that even after "successful" treatment it does not revert back to its healthy state. Specifically, the organ continues to have an "elevated reward system" as compared to normal brains.
Congratulations to Canada for approving the use of irradiation to help prevent contamination of ground beef from causing foodborne illness. The process has been approved in the US for a variety of foods and purposes, and we're pleased that Canadians can also benefit from its use.
Our views on egg consumption — at least as far as heart disease goes — have changed dramatically in the past decade. They're no longer seen as a dietary villain. A new study suggests that not only do eggs not contribute dementia, which had been suggested by some animal studies, they may also be linked to a lower risk of such ailments.
Not only does bariatric surgery provide substantial weight loss to the obese, but it can also ameliorate the metabolic derangements of diabetes and decrease their need for medications. And, a new randomized study found, these beneficial results aren't transient — they were still apparent five years post-surgery and were superior to the results of strictly medical treatment.