We all feel blue from time to time, but major depressive disorder (MDD) is a condition that lasts for a long period of time. It’s a disease that people can’t just “get over” or “snap out of.” While antidepressant medications have been helpful for many people with MDD, they come with side effects of their own,
If you are like most Americans, you are not following this critical health practice. Who is “they”? In this case, people peddling the latest complicated fad diet.
The secret is not-so-secret: eat your veggies. I have written previously that one of the simplest things we can do to improve our health and longevity is to ensure that we’re eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
If there’s one thing that’s consistent in the field of nutrition, it’s that information is always changing. With the barrage of latest headlines about the scientific research on nutrition, how can we cut through the confusion and make healthy choices? I usually spend a fair amount of time reading Nutrition Facts labels at the grocery store,
Healthy lifestyle habits: we know we should do them, but sometimes, it just seems like work. Yes, Dr. Peters, I know that a Mediterranean diet and exercise will decrease my risk of dying, but it’s just one more thing to add to the daily to-do list. A phenomenon has popped up in recent years that makes it just a little less onerous to keep our minds and bodies fit:
This is the headline would like to see, whenever we hear about the latest scientific research in the media. However, even with the best scientific journals, pinning down “the truth” in medicine can be a tricky business. I think that science is important in guiding our health care decisions this, but we must be wary about overreliance on so-called evidence-based medicine.
As you might expect, it depends on the kind of fat. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the standard advice from the 1970s and 80s about following a low-fat diet turned out to be less healthy than including “good” fats from foods like nuts and olive oil. Another recent scientific paper from Australia,
There’s been a lot of debate over the years as to whether or not red meat consumption increases our risk of developing heart disease. In the past, much of the research has focused on the high levels of saturated fat and red meat, and their impact on blood cholesterol levels. A new study just published this month in Nature Medicine suggests a new mechanism: the difference in the type of gut bacteria between meat eaters and non-meat eaters.
At this time of year, perhaps you’ve finished off your Valentine’s Day chocolate, only to be looking forward to some chocolate in your Easter basket soon. Americans definitely need to cut down on sweets: The high sugar and saturated fat content in most milk chocolate can be a contributor to obesity and metabolic syndrome (a combination of insulin resistance,
Research in the area of normal flora — the “good,” or beneficial bacteria that live in our gut — has been exploding in recent years. It has been known for a long time that supplementing with probiotics (those friendly bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidus) can help with conditions ranging from eczema to allergies to irritable bowel syndrome.