Bringing wholesome healthy tips
There are two major reasons that heart disease and vascular issues scare the pants off most of us… Number one, they are common. And number two, they are the leaders of hospitalization, disability and death — consequences we’d all prefer to avoid! Stroke is perhaps the scariest of all vascular conditions because it can creep up on you unexpectedly. And since a stroke leads to the destruction of brain tissue, in…
I’ve always been intimidated by the idea of water fasting. The idea of consuming nothing but water for three to five days at a time seems like a difficult ask for someone who lives an active lifestyle. But I have friends who rave about how much more energized and clear-minded they feel after a fast. And some experts recommend water or other types of liquid fasts for giving your health…
There’s this myth about the lazy days of summer when everyone’s relaxing and you don’t have a care in the world. But, I know that for me, summer is one of the busiest times of the year. Between the kids being out of school, planning vacations and the million and one other things that have to get done each day, it seems like I never slow down — much less…
Eating well prevents obesity. We all know that, right? And obesity is really a form of premature aging. Being overweight ages us from the inside out, affecting our telomeres, harming our energy-producing mitochondria, and weakening our immune system. And as if that weren’t enough, it makes our brain get old a lot faster than it normally would, making us more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease. But according to ongoing research, there’s…
Pneumonia tends to affect older adults more than younger ones, and it’s deadlier when it does. Older people are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized with pneumonia, and 85 percent of all pneumonia-related deaths are in people over the age of 60. With these odds, older adults need to protect themselves as best they can from any bacteria or illness that can lead to pneumonia, taking extra precautions,…
For years, the medical establishment has pushed the idea that taking vitamins and other supplements is a waste of time and money. Your doctor may have even scoffed at the idea that supplements could have an impact on your health. But most people, at least half of American adults, are not letting that dissuade them. Seventy percent of people 65 and older take a multivitamin or other supplements regularly. And…
Thanks to scientific advances, there are now more ways to measure aging than the turning of the calendar pages. One method measures biological age, or how old your cells are, by using so-called epigenetic clocks. These clocks track chemical changes in your DNA that occur naturally as you age. Epigenetic clocks can better predict both your health and your lifespan in ways that go beyond chronological age, or the number…
In 1981, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the artificial sweetener aspartame. The American Diabetes Association supports the use of aspartame as an acceptable sugar replacement, even though it has generated 75 percent of consumer reports on adverse reactions to artificial sweeteners. If you use the artificial sweeteners Nutra Sweet or Equal, you’re eating aspartame. And if you drink diet soda or chew gum, you’re getting a…
Heart disease kills more Americans than any other health condition, and men in their 60s and beyond are particularly at risk. The average age of heart attack sufferers is 67, and to some extent, this is not surprising. Although a heart attack may be “sudden” and “out of the blue,” the substrate that enabled the heart attack to happen has been building for decades. In addition, as you get older,…
A magnesium deficiency is something you really want to avoid. Being low on magnesium can put you at risk for conditions ranging from low thyroid, asthma and migraines to diabetes, hypertension, and stroke. But a magnesium deficiency is notoriously hard to detect… until you’ve got one. That’s because most of our magnesium is stored in our bones, undetectable by routine blood tests. If you are generally healthy, you could have…