Category: Health Tip

“Avoid sunlight, it will give you skin cancer.” You’ve probably heard people say it, but it isn’t always good advice. Sunlight is our most important source of vitamin D. The current epidemic of vitamin D deficiency is largely a result of avoiding healthy levels of sun exposure.   The amount of sunshine time we need…

According to the Swedish Public Health Department, 10000 people in Sweden die prematurely every year due to unhealthy lifestyle habits. Many people smoke, drink too much alcohol, are too sedentary and eat too much and the wrong types of foods. All of this leads to and increased risk for early sickness and death.   So…

Recently, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, issued a revised statement on vegetarian diets. In this they state that “vegetarian diets may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain health condition, including atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity” (Cullum-Dugan & Pawlak, 2015,…

High midlife fitness was associated with lower cancer deaths later in life. Men in the highest fitness level when tested in mid-life had a 50% lower incidence of lung and colorectal cancer (but not prostate cancer) after age 65 compared to those in the lowest fitness category. Those who who did develop any of these…

Cat naps may improve your memory. German researchers have found that napping for less than an hour helps the brain consolidate newly learned information. Forty-one participants were tested on their memorization of individual words and word pairs. Then half were allowed to sleep and the others could watch DVD’s. Immediately after the break they were…

Emergency rooms admit more constipated people than ever. Researchers estimate in the U.S. there are 500,000 annual emergency room (ER) visits for constipation. Each visit averages $2300 in costs. That adds up to $1.6 billion dollars yearly. In most cases a plant-based diet rich in dietary fiber combined with adequate fluids and physical activity will…

A Large study says homeopathy is not effective for any condition. Homeopathy claims very dilute doses of substances retain a “memory” of the original substance and trigger a healing response. This alternative modality of treatment was thoroughly reviewed by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia. After analyzing 225 controlled studies and 1800…

Fasting has been advocated for centuries as a benefit for humanity. The benefits of dietary restriction or limiting the amount of food eaten range from protecting from tissue damage and improved metabolism to expanding the lifespan of organisms from yeast to primates. Recently, a study from Harvard School of Public Health found a key reason…

As few as 5 consecutive days of exercise provides cardioprotection in lab animals. Coronary artery disease is a major cause of death around the globe. When the arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle become blocked damage occurs. This is known as a heart attack. Fortunately, there is a simple countermeasure that is known to…

Women pursuing IVF (a fertility treatment where the egg is fertilized by the sperm outside the body) who ate soy foods had an almost 80% higher chance of egg fertilization. Soy-based food products have been accused of interfering with fertility. Researchers have now found that eggs from women who consumed soy and were involved in…

High-intensity or low-intensity physical activity will both help take off the pounds. When it comes to weight loss, both high and low-intensity workouts are beneficial. Researchers randomized 300 abdominally obese adults to four groups: controls which maintained their normal activity level; low-amount, low-intensity group; high-amount, low-intensity exercise, and high-amount, high-intensity exercise. Each exercise group received…

A little extra sleep improves kids’ behavior at school. Moderately increasing sleep in children made a big difference in their school behavior. Canadian researchers randomized 34 healthy children 7-11 who had no behavioral, academic or sleep problems to a group who received an extra hour of sleep and one who had an hour taken away…