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.
Why My Grandmother Died
You may be wondering why the TAP-IT study created that stop-in-my-tracks moment. In the mid-1980s, my grandmother Frances was 80 years old and was always my biggest fan. She had congestive heart failure, so doctors tried the needle procedure, which drained close to 20 lbs. of fluid from around her lungs; you can imagine the […]
TAP-IT to Stop It
Have you ever had a moment where you were reading something, listening to an audio, or watching a video where you just had a moment of realization and absolutely stopped in your tracks? The reason is that you got hit with a discovery of some fact that you didn’t know. More than that, you realized […]
The Bottom Line on Red Yeast Rice
If you remember the last Memo, I said that the active ingredient in red yeast rice (RYR) was monacolin K, which is chemically identical to a current statin medication: lovastatin. The problem with RYR in supplements is that the amounts of monacolin K varied depending on the exact type of Monascus mold used—it could be […]
It’s Back: Red Yeast Rice
I still get questions about using red yeast rice (RYR) instead of a statin to lower cholesterol. About 15 years ago, I looked up the data, wrote about it, and tucked it away. The answer was yes—but. What does that mean? Time to review it again in case you’ve been thinking about it. Red yeast […]
Specificity of Training
The concept of training to attain specific performance is called specificity of training. The simplest example is that if you want to run a marathon, you run long distances for training, not 10-yard sprints. I think it’s more than that: the objective is to train the body to use physical activity, food, and rest in […]
An Amazing Performance
This week, I’m going to talk about a couple of amazing examples of physical feats; it all comes down to training to perform. I’m telling you in advance that the Optimal Performance training program provides the why and the how. When I’m done with the Memos, decide if you want to revisit it if you […]
It’s Going to Be a While
In the last Memo, When Will We Get Something Better?, we looked at research on a new drug to counter obesity. But don’t hold your breath. The researchers developed a sophisticated algorithm and used AI to find the process and the potential obesity-protein hormone to help combat obesity. What’s next? Several years or longer of […]
When Will We Get Something Better?
The quest for a pharmacological solution to obesity continues—the magic pill to make us thin. While Ozempic and Wegovy, discovered and developed to treat type 2 diabetes, have been successful in helping reduce HbA1c, it has also helped people lose weight; the problem is the side effects. As you might guess, there are receptors for […]
Research Must Go On
This is the final installment of my Memo series illustrating why research funding for basic and clinical trials should never stop unless the approach is obviously misdirected. Delaying research due to the dogma of the day is bad; delaying it because someone believes in a refuted dogma is worse. This is not a debate on […]
What Research Delays Can Cost
In 1911, a physician named Peyton Rous discovered that a microbe, found in a tumor in chicken, was able to infect other chickens causing the same cancer. His findings were thought to be ridiculous because cancer wasn’t caused by a microbe—so his research stopped. Those microbes were called viruses in later years. Move forward to […]
