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.
What Causes Shingles?
“What’s your opinion on getting the shingles vaccination? It’s expensive and my insurance doesn’t cover it. Is it worth it?” A little background first. Shingles is a viral infection. One million people will get shingles this year, and one out of three people 60 and older will get shingles in their lifetime. It’s caused by […]
Why I’ll Keep Using Coconut Oil
The research that the authors of the American Heart Association Presidential Advisory on Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease, specifically on coconut oil, seems to be in conflict. The authors suggested coconut oil is bad for us, but the research studies they used didn’t really seem to confirm that conclusion. What gives? The criteria that the […]
Coconut Oil Research vs. the AHA
For this memo, I’ll print conclusions from the papers cited in the American Heart Association Presidential Advisory on Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease and then print what the authors wrote about the research studies they used to assess coconut oil (1). I’ll confess, it’s hard to understand how they reached some of these conclusions. The […]
Coconut Oil: Healthy or Not?
The headlines screamed “Coconut Oil is Alarmingly High in Saturated Fats!” News post after news post talked about how Americans have been sold a bill of goods on the health benefits of coconut oil. Now the American Heart Association says it’s harmful. They published a Presidential Advisory on Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease, a review […]
The Big Fried-Potato Question
During the eight-year study, only 236 of the 4,400 subjects died; fewer than 30 per year. We don’t know what caused their deaths; one would expect it to be heart attacks and strokes but that data was not examined. The researchers adjusted the analysis for a number of variables including age, but it would have […]
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 […]
