Entries by Chet Zelasko

Lectin: Hidden Danger?

This week will be about beans and nuts, a tired ad campaign, and some exciting new research. Let’s begin with the advertising retread. A retired pediatric cardiologist started talking about the dangers of lectins in foods, especially beans and nuts, years ago. They were the reason you had bloating and other digestive issues. That turns […]

Melatonin: Stay the Course

As we continue to examine the results that appeared to suggest that the chronic use of melatonin in people diagnosed with insomnia could result in an increased risk of a diagnosis of heart failure, heart failure hospitalizations, and death from all causes, let’s put the unreviewed abstract in perspective. One correction from Tuesday. The researchers […]

Melatonin: CVD Risk?

Medical conferences are always a great source of controversy; studies are presented that haven’t been peer reviewed but have great press releases to advertise them. The American Heart Association met last week, and the Scientific Sessions didn’t disappoint. The abstract that caught my attention was based on an analysis of a large database of subjects […]

The Pink Salt Diet

As I meander through social media to get a sense of what’s going on out there in the health field, I happened upon something called the pink salt diet. Sure enough, I got a question asking me about it a short time later. After research, I’d say the only thing you may get from the […]

Vote!

I’m an election inspector here in Michigan, so I’m spending today verifying that voters are registered to vote in this election. Paula and I already voted via drop-off ballot. My only message is to vote in any election that’s conducted in your area today. There are two things we value in the U.S.: one is […]

By Any Means Necessary

The second discussion was between a tech expert and a finance expert—neither one in the healthcare field. The tech expert shared a story of how a nurse who weighed over 300 pounds was using a GLP-1 agonist to get to a more reasonable weight so she could participate in more activities with her family. That […]

Same Problem, Different Solution

Close to 70% of all adult Americans, as well as an increasing number of children, are overweight or obese. The solution for society has been as elusive as it is simple: eat less. Eat better. Move more. But there’s one more part that’s the problem: for life. We could review the reasons why, but let’s […]

Mystery Ingredients

One of the oft-repeated comments by many nutritional experts goes something like this: “If you can’t say it, don’t eat it.” A further expansion of that is “If there are ingredients you don’t recognize on the nutrition label, don’t eat that food.” The idea is that the longer the list of ingredients with more difficulty […]

Everybody’s a Critic

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been listening to a variety of health-related podcasts. One just went from one topic to another about the benefits of the ketogenic diet; no matter the issue, it was going to be part of the solution one way or another. Another simply criticized any research that had to […]

Zeaxanthin: More Than Eye Health

Zeaxanthin is a carotenoid we know contributes to eye health, but recent research has shown that it may be beneficial in boosting the right immune cells that will interfere with tumor growth. Researchers examined the effect of zeaxanthin in mice getting immunotherapy for cancer treatment. While the immunotherapy worked, its effect was enhanced in the […]