Here’s a health tip you may have suspected all along. There’s now “official” medical justification for that most pleasant of human activities: your afternoon nap.
Category: Knowledge Base
Aromatherapy and Menstrual Cramps
Here’s a thoughtful gift for you, your daughter, or anyone who dreads her period because of cramps.
Q&A: Supplements for Recovering Alcoholic
Q: I have a friend who is a recovering alcoholic. She’s gone through detox and is doing well managing her disease, but she wants to know if there are supplements (like milk thistle?) to support the liver that she should take to help her body recover and stay healthy.
Breaking the Fast with Breakfast
Breakfast breaks the fasting period our bodies undergo while we’re sleeping. You can quickly see why breakfast is essential: your body has just gone through hours with no nutrients. When you awake and begin your day, you need fuel.
Importance of Magnesium
People who schedule visits with nutritionists are usually surprised to find themselves almost always walking out with a bottle of magnesium tablets along with some suitable vitamins and a healthful eating program.
A Must Read for Those with Fibromyalgia
This weekend, I was reading through my latest copy of Fibromyalgia Aware magazine. After taking care of people with fibro for decades, I’m always surprised that I learn something new in each issue.
Diet Drugs
Hoffmann-La Roche, a pharmaceutical industry giant, enjoyed a tasty chunk of good news this month. Their friends at the ever-cooperative FDA have allowed them to bring a milder version of their prescription fat-blocking drug, Xenical, to the over-the-counter market this summer. The new OTC drug is called alli.
Gratitude
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Anti-Aging Medicine
At least once a week, someone asks me about anti-aging therapies. People want to know if there are special supplements, hormones, or injections to keep them youthful. Is there something they’re missing? Will everyone be getting younger while, for them (and them alone) time will march inexorably on?
Longer Life for the Man in Your Life
Former TV host Art Linkletter, now 94, still travels 150,000 miles a year delivering more than 75 lectures on healthful longevity, and moves around like someone in his thirties. I met him when he’d just turned 80 and he looked terrific.
Q&A: Vitamin D
Q: You’ve written a lot about the value of vitamin D, especially for women living in overcast places. I live in Minneapolis and I’m wondering how much I should take every day. Also, I read that vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and there are risks if you take too much. How much is too much?
Vitamin Graveyard
Do you have a “vitamin graveyard?” You probably do but just never called it that. You’ll find it on your kitchen countertop or along a shelf in your medicine cabinet. Maybe it’s your bathroom window ledge.
Yogurt 101: Become a Label-Reader
When I talk to my patients about nutrition, yogurt comes up as a popular food choice, and overall an excellent one…if you know what’s in your yogurt.
Are You Drinking Enough Water?
My patients ask me all the time how much water they should be drinking each day. It’s a good question. Generally speaking, you’ll feel and look better when you’re well hydrated. Your kidneys will more easily be able to flush out waste products and environmental toxins, and your skin will have a healthy glow.
Q&A: Stiff Neck
Q: Lately I’ve noticed my neck seems stiff when I try to back up my car and turn to look right or left behind me. Are there any exercises that would limber it up?
Hair Loss
Hair loss is challenging enough for men, but for women it can be devastating. Our culture accepts what doctors call male pattern baldness (even if many men aren’t crazy about the idea), but not balding women.
Easing Cramps
Of course I don’t know how menstrual cramps actually feel, but I suspect that if men were faced with monthly, industrial strength pain in the abdomen we’d go racing off to the Mayo Clinic in sweaty desperation.
Q&A: Bromelain Dose for Anti-Inflammatory Effect
Q: Ever since you wrote about bromelain I’ve wanted to try it, as you suggested, instead of aspirin or ibuprofen. I’m managing my heel spur pain well with the help of my physical therapist, but she encourages me to take an anti-inflammatory when I have pain. Would you tell me what dose of bromelain I should use? Also, does it work for arthritis?
Arthritis in Your Knees
You may not have a problem with arthritis in your knees now, but if your mom or grandmother has knee pain–or you yourself do–you might want to read this.
Modify Risk Factors
Doctors use the term “modifiable risk factors” to describe those aspects of a person’s life that are potentially dangerous but which can be reversed, or modified. Conversely, some risk factors are less modifiable. If you have a family history of a certain cancer, you can’t order a new set of genes, but you can have regular check-ups and avoid substances known to trigger your particular cancer risk.