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.
Adaptation: Exercise
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoI can’t think of a better example of positive adaptation than exercise. Whether it’s a sport skill, increasing strength, or improving cardiovascular fitness, exercise uses the adaptation principles; the difference is that it’s an intentional act instead of a response to a physical challenge. As an example, let’s use walking or running to improve the […]
Adaptation: Recovery
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoIn this Memo arc, I’m going to lay the foundation to support my opinion that obesity is a man-made disease. I’m adding this idea to that opinion: reducing body weight and maintaining the weight loss can occur with man-made solutions. Actually, it’s utilizing one mechanism we often overlook that the body uses all the time: […]
Obesity: A Man-Made Disease
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoIn order to determine whether obesity is an untreatable disease without pharmaceuticals, I took a look at BMI data since 1960. In comparing the BMI of people in the lowest income brackets with the highest income from 1960 through 2024, the lowest income group is always about one BMI unit above the highest income group. […]
Is Obesity a Disease?
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoIn a podcast about GLP-1 receptor agonists and several new medications that are under development, the expert was a researcher on the cutting edge of what these peptides can do for weight loss. A couple of things she said didn’t sit right. One was that obesity is a disease of genetic tendencies to store fat […]
Absolutely Monumentous!
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoHappy Mother’s Day to all the mothers who perform monumentous tasks every day. For those of you who still have your mom in your life, make it a habit to treat your mom like every day is Mother’s Day. It’s similar to working on your health. It’s not what you do once in a while […]
Monumentous Marathon
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoOnce in a while, something happens that you need a made-up word to describe. More than momentous, more than monumental, the new world record for the marathon was more than that. It was monumentous: four athletes broke the world record for the men’s and women’s marathon. At the London Marathon in late April, the official […]
I Can See Clearly Now
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoI left you with some questions I had to ponder and have gotten a couple more. Then I’ll leave you with the answer I posed to my ocular surgeon. Glaucoma Glaucoma is not just a single ocular disease; there are several types. Some are related to how well the eyes drain fluid; some drain slowly […]
My Eyes!
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoNo, it’s not like when Phoebe saw Monica and Chandler kissing on Friends—but it is rather dramatic. Let me recap my vision story. My dad died at 41, so I have no info from him or his family. My grandmother had cataracts removed when she was about 70. It led to a decline in her […]
Again with the BMI?
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoI got an email from a long-time reader about a recently published study comparing BMI calculated from height and weight with percent body fat calculated via Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry commonly called DEXA. The objective of the study was to see if BMI was accurate in predicting the differences between underweight, normal weight, and several […]
When in Doubt…
/in Memos/by Chet ZelaskoWhen I was doing a post-doc in the late 1980s, I was part of a team of researchers who tested a group of swimmers. This was one of four parts of an overall documentary on an innovative look at health by the PBS’s Nova. I had about a half-second of screen time in this PBS […]