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.
Dealing with Keto Breath and Other Odors
Quick question: what side effect do you typically assign to eating asparagus? I bet you took less than a second to come up an answer: a different odor to your urine, sometimes quite pungent. Asparagus is a cruciferous vegetable with phytonutrients that produce the effect. On Tuesday and Thursday, we looked at digestive problems with […]
Keto: Clearing the Air and Your Colon
The next keto diet issues are still related to the digestive system: excessive gas and constipation. Let’s address the issue of gas first so that maybe the next time you bend over, you won’t have to worry about challenging the strength of your anal sphincter muscles. The protein content of the revised keto diet may […]
The Downsides of Going Keto
News stories about the side-effects of the still-popular ketogenic diet are showing up more frequently, so let’s review those this week and look at what you can do to address the issues while still attempting to stay in ketosis. The first side effect is generally diarrhea. With the newer version of the ketogenic diets, the […]
Protein and Longevity: The Unproven Relationship
I think the best way to assess whether the study I’ve been examining this week on protein and longevity is meaningful or not is to examine the interview with the primary author Christopher Proud, PhD. I’m going to give a series of his statements and whether the research addressed the question. “Science has shown for […]
Is Protein Bad? The Research
Let’s think about this logically. If we wanted to prove that a high-protein diet would decrease lifespan, we would have to feed some type of animal a diet high in protein until all the animals had died. It would be preferable to have animals that don’t live very long such as rodents. Then we compare […]
Does Protein Decrease Lifespan?
Just when we’ve accepted that carbohydrates are bad for us and everyone seems to be doing the paleo or ketogenic diets, a new study from an Australian research group created headlines by suggesting that high-protein diets are unhealthy because they decrease longevity. For years we’ve been told that high-fat diets are bad. Then scientists suggested […]
Fasting: A Metabolic Do-Over
The changes that occur during fasting are remarkable. Blood sugar is maintained within normal ranges. Protein and other breakdown products can be used to make glucose. And there’s one more significant finding: levels of purines and pyrimidines increased during the fast. These are some of the substrates for making proteins and nucleic acids used for […]
Gluconeogenesis: Making Sugar
On Tuesday, I said that blood sugars remained stable in all subjects throughout the study. How can that be when they would most likely use all their stored sugar in 24 hours or so? Their bodies made glucose out of protein and scraps from the breakdown of other substances. Many hormones and connective tissue are […]
A Case for Fasting
During the food poisoning episode last week, I didn’t eat for 30 hours. Of course, I had slept most of that time and eating was the last thing I wanted to do. Even though I could have started eating again, I decided to continue the fast to at least 60 hours. I continued to drink […]
Report Food Poisoning
What should you do if you get food poisoning? Report it. The procedure may vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city, but here’s what we did. The first thing: Paula called the restaurant where we ate and told the manager what happened, what we ate, and when. We can’t be […]
