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.
Stretch Your Body, Stretch Your Lifespan
“Stretching reduces your risk of dying from all causes” was the message from Tuesday’s Memo. How does that work? Why would stretching decrease mortality? There are no definitive answers, but here are a few possibilities. It may be that stretching strengthens the blood vessels as well as the connective tissue; that may decrease the potential […]
Reducing Your Risk of Dying the Easy Way
Quick! If I were to ask you which form of exercise would decrease your chance of dying, and especially your chance of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD), what would your answer be? You’d probably pick some form of aerobic exercise such as running, elliptical training, walking, and cycling—any type of exercise that works the heart […]
Reality Check: Vitamin D
Let me be clear. You should know how much of every dietary supplement you take and why you take it. If you exceed the amounts recommended on the label, you should also know why. But the case of the 89-year-old man who died because of an assumed excess vitamin D intake shouldn’t change a reasonable […]
Vitamin D: Cautionary News
Every once in a while, news on the suspected abuse of a dietary supplement makes headlines; such was the case when I read my news feed this past weekend. An assistant coroner in Surrey, U.K., declared the cause of death for an 89-year-old man was excessive calcium build-up due to high levels of vitamin D […]
Spring Cleaning
Earlier this week I was an election worker for the Michigan primary. It wasn’t particularly busy at times so, as often happens, people asked me what I do and then checked out my website. The conversation came around to my thoughts on detoxing. I said I thought it was really good; after all, I wrote […]
The Step-by-Step Approach to Pain
As I wrap up preparations for tomorrow’s Managing Pain Super Bowl Webinar, I wanted to provide you with a little more information—specifically, how I’m going to use a step-by-step approach to deal with pain. The typical approach used by the medical profession is to try a treatment and if that doesn’t work, try the next […]
Help for Long-Haulers
Many people suffer from a myriad of symptoms after contracting a COVID infection. Muscle and mental fatigue seem to be common among these “long-haulers”—more technically called post-viral fatigue syndrome. Based on prior research by the investigators, they randomly selected twelve subjects with long-haul COVID symptoms. Half the subjects took four grams of creatine monohydrate for […]
Gas Station Heroin
I have to admit that I’d never heard the headline’s words strung together like that until I read about the banning of several products that contained an anti-depressant called tianeptine, which is approved in some countries (not the U.S.) as a prescription drug for the treatment of depression. It is a tricyclic antidepressant; in some […]
Managing Pain
Quick: what’s the location of pain that’s experienced by most adults in the United States, regardless of age? Pain afflicts everyone at one time or another, but the older we get, research shows that we’re more likely to experience chronic pain. That time you twisted your knee when you played a pick-up game of basketball? […]
Coffee to Go
The health benefits of tea are substantial, and in some ways, coffee is even better. They both have substantial amounts of phytonutrients, but this isn’t about the benefits to your heart, your liver, or your brain. This is about the comparative benefits to your digestive system of coffee and tea. While the fiber approach wasn’t […]
