Health

If you came to hear me scream about the perils of tobacco, let me get this out of the way: Cigarette smoking is associated with about 90 percent of lung cancer in the United States. Now that we have that clearly stated let’s pivot to some other risk factors.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer worldwide in men and the second leading cause in women. Worldwide, lung cancer occurred in 2.1 million patients in 2018 and caused an estimated 1.8 million deaths.

Sometimes lung cancer arises in the setting of no apparent cause. In uncommon cases…

IF I ASKED YOU if long-term stress increased your risk of having a heart attack, you probably would answer in the affirmative. You may be surprised to learn that there is not much high-level evidence to confirm the stress: heart attack connection. A new study from Sweden confirms that long-term stress is likely a risk factor for heart attacks.

Stress can be valuable. For example, it can help your performance in meeting an important deadline. When we are in danger, stress can help us to avoid harm. However, chronic stress is different: You may experience anxiety, depression, irritability, challenges with…

I KNOW THAT the point of my health-related postings is to provide evidence-based information to help you optimize wellness. But today, I give you a story that is so strange that you may question if I have strayed from my core mission. But I assure you that the headline is accurate. Okay?

A recent report from Edith Cowan University (Perth, Australia) showed that training one arm could improve strength (and decrease muscle loss) in the opposite arm, even if this opposite arm does not move. These findings challenge how we have thought about rehabilitation.

Researchers gathered 30 individuals willing to…

GET OUTDOORS, and you just might improve your health and well-being—the gentle sounds of moving water, the rustling of leaves in the trees. You may drop your blood pressure and stress levels. You may also improve your mood and focus, too.

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth. — Henry David Thoreau

How do sounds change our brain? Researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (England) provide some answers. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine brain activity in subjects as…

Sleep is often noisy and interrupted. Despite these challenges, couples typically share a bed, with 60 percent of couples sleeping together. Is it bad if you and your partner sleep apart (if you are privileged enough to have space to do so)?

If you are in a relationship, do you prefer to sleep with your partner or sleep alone? A 2017 survey from the US National Sleep Foundation indicates that almost one in four married couples sleep in separate beds; most of us prefer to sleep with our partners. Do we sleep together at a cost to our sleep?

Here’s…

DO YOU EVER WONDER about the relationship between sports participation and direct eating habits? We know exercise burns calories, but how much does it drive us to overeat? For the first time, we have a study that probes this intriguing question.

Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Nebraska (USA) explored the phenomenon of people overeating after physical activity. I know that I often want to reward myself after a good workout.

The researchers aimed to understand the influence of exercise on hypothetical decisions regarding the timing and amount of food consumption. The study randomized…

EMBRACE EXERCISE and general fitness, and you will likely experience improvements in heart health and quality of life. Also, we have the known beneficial effects on weight control, lipids, blood pressure, and more. Today I want to share with you a new study that gives some clues about your volume of exercise and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Historical studies have often been suboptimal, relying on people’s memories and self-reports about their exercise. In this context, we have an imperfect understanding of whether too much exercise harms our heart. …

While it is extraordinarily challenging to get high-level evidence in the diet realm, I strongly suspect you are spot-on. Thanks for your insights, and am delighted that you are dodging MTX!