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.
When Supplements Aren’t Absorbed
If you take any type of dietary supplement, you want to make sure that you’re getting the active ingredient whether that’s turmeric, the mineral iron, or omega-3 fatty acids. The problem is that whether in its natural form in food or put into dietary supplements, nutrients can be difficult to absorb. In addition, the same […]
Childhood Obesity: A Family Thing
I hope you took some time to scan the Executive Summary of American Association of Pediatrics Guidelines for Physicians. If you couldn’t, here are the three things that stood out to me. Screening by Pediatricians and Primary Care Physicians The focus of the guidelines was to assess risk factors for degenerative disease such as heart […]
New Guidelines on Childhood Obesity
If you pay attention to health news, you know the American Association of Pediatrics issued new guidelines on how to treat childhood obesity. Depending on where you read or listened to how those guidelines were presented, all you may have heard is that kids over 12 can get medications to help with weight loss and […]
Almonds to the Rescue!
Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is common in sedentary people who overdo it—the weekend warriors who catch up on all the yard work in one day or people who have to shovel out a long driveway after a big snow. Researchers wanted to test what benefits these occasional exercisers may get from eating almonds compared to […]
Research Update: Exercise in Short Bursts
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has become very popular due to the possibility of gaining fitness in a short amount of time, but when done correctly workouts still take 20 to 40 minutes. A group of researchers examined the United Kingdom Biobank data to see if a sub-group of subjects who wore accelerometers might benefit from […]
Will Ultra-Processed Food Harm You?
Use of ultra-processed food (UPF) has risen over the past 20 years; that’s clear from a recent study that examined eating trends. Using data from nine cycles of the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) study, there has been a steady rise in the percentage intake of UPF from 53% to 57%. Over the […]
What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?
Several studies have been published recently that demonstrate the hazard of eating too much processed food: digestive issues, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, early mortality, and even premature Alzheimer’s disease. Today I’ll focus on some definitions and look at the research on Saturday. Many of the studies that have examined ultra-processed food have used the […]
Is It Worth It?
At an obesity conference, the report on the clinical trials for a pre-diabetes and diabetes medication left the crowd on their feet and cheering. There are reports of well-known personalities who’ve used the drug with great results. But the ultimate question about a pharmaceutical approach to obesity has to be this: is it worth the […]
Happy New Year!
It’s good to be back talking to all of you again. The New Year is a time of optimism, everything seems possible, and there’s an enthusiasm for achieving health goals. One thing many people want to do is to lose some weight. It seems appropriate to cover a couple of drugs that were recently approved […]
Aging Stressor: Excess Body Weight
The last major stressor that comes with age is excess body weight. The first book that I ever bought in grad school was about obesity. In it, there was a chart of almost 100 health issues that were linked by research to carrying extra body fat and one that was not. In the 40 years […]
