Last week I gave you seven of my top tips for living longer (and living better!). And thanks to everyone who commented so positively on the first seven! Here are seven more of my favorites. Hope you like! (more…)
Blog
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Mediterranean Diet May Help Prevent Dementia
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
Eating a diet rich in healthy fats and limiting dairy and meat could do more than keep your heart healthier. It could also help keep you thinking clearly.
New research shows that sticking to the Mediterranean diet, previously shown to reduce heart and other health issues, also may help lower the risk of having small areas of dead tissue linked to thinking problems. Known as brain infarcts, they’re involved in vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease.
“We’ve got these diseases of aging that cause disability, cost a ton of money to treat and manage, and wreck people’s lives,” said Dr. Gregory Cole, a professor of medicine and neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in this new study. “You’ve got to get in there and figure out what actually works for prevention, and not have people guessing.” (more…)
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14 Keys to Longevity (Part One)
As you may know my new book, ‘The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer” is out, and I’ve been doing a round of TV and radio appearances to promote it. Recently I appeared on KTLA in Los Angeles, where the moderator asked me for my five top tips for living longer.
The challenge- for me- is always to narrow a list like this down to so few items.
I came up with 14 tips but whittled it down to five for the KTLA appearance. But I thought I’d share all 14 with you, in a two-parter here in the newsletter. (For a full list of strategies for living longer and healthier, please see read my book!) (more…)
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Bagels or Bacon? The Metabolic Breakfast
A new study from the University of Alabama appears to be setting conventional wisdom on its ear. The study, published online in the March 30 International Journal of Obesity, shows that eating a high fat breakfast actually may prevent many of the dangerous symptoms of Metabolic Syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome- also known as “pre-diabetes”- is a constellation of symptoms that includes abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and high triglycerides. It frequently leads to full-blown diabetes, and even when it doesn’t, it puts you at significant risk for heart disease. (more…)
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Women’s Health Watch: Low-Carb Diets and PCOS
One in ten women has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common reproductive abnormality in premenopausal women, putting them at higher risk for both cardiovascular disease and diabetes. PCOS is also the most common cause of infertility.
One of the major biochemical features of PCOS is the combination of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia (elevated insulin levels). The ability of obese women with PCOS to use glucose (sugar) is significantly impaired, and they have a marked reduction in insulin sensitivity. (more…)
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The Real Way to Reduce Heart Disease: The “Power 5”
While we’re on the topic of “good signs” in the mainstream media, I was somewhat encouraged by a recent story on heart disease in the Feb 15, 2010 issue of Newsweek magazine. Four top cardiologists had a panel discussion on how to better prevent heart disease.
I was heartened to note that not one of them mentioned cholesterol. (more…)
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Statins and Cholesterol: Truth and Fiction
I’ve been arguing against the universal use of statin drugs for several years now, but I’ve felt like the kid at the parade who kept saying the emperor was naked even as all the “grown-ups” continued to admire the emperor’s sartorial elegance.
The arguments I- and many of my esteemed colleagues- have made include these (pay particular attention to number 4): (more…)
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Why I Am Not A Vegetarian: The China Study
I am not now, and have never been, a vegetarian.
OK, that’s not entirely true, I flirted with vegetarianism briefly a few decades ago, right around the time I was also experimenting with sideburns and dashikis. But for most of my adult life- and certainly for all the time I’ve been a nutritionist- I’ve been an unrepentant consumer of animal products.
It’s not that I’m not sympathetic to the animal welfare folks- in fact, I count myself among them (it’s a big tent, folks!) I belong to just about every animal activist group on the planet and care deeply about animal welfare. But while I share with my vegan friends a deep concern for all sentient beings, I happen to believe that we humans do better with some animal products in our diet. (more…)
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Eat More Fat?
What if there was a widely accepted theory that guided government policy and affected your life in all sorts of ways- and what if it were absolutely, boneheadedly wrong?
You’d be pretty mad, right?
That’s how I- and many of my colleagues- have felt for years about the theory that saturated fat causes heart disease. (more…)
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The Vitamin D-ilema
A recent presentation at the Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting reported an interesting connection between vitamin D and weight loss.
If you’ve listened to the news in the past year, you probably already know that vitamin D is the new star in the supplement world. Studies are piling up touting the importance of this previously underrated vitamin for everything from mood to cancer prevention to physical performance.
Now it turns out that your vitamin D status is actually a good predictor of how successful you’ll be in trying to lose weight.
The study presented at the Endocrine Society’s meeting showed that men and women with higher vitamin D levels experienced a greater amount of weight loss when dieting compared to those with lower levels. (more…)