Heart Attack
Cooking Oil Confusion: What’s Best, Olive …
Health professionals have been misleading Americans about food for decades. We were told that cholesterol and fat were our enemies. Eggs, shrimp, nuts and olive oil were bad. That led the food industr…
What’s in Your Frying Pan? Omega-6 or Omega-3 …
Americans have long been urged to embrace polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) vegetable oils because they are low in saturated fats. These oils made from corn, peanuts, soybeans, safflower and sunflower…
Are Some Vegetable Oils Worse than Saturated Fat…
For decades, the number one dietary evil in America has been saturated fat (sat fat). Ask most doctors and nutrition experts the one thing you should remove from your diet over everything else, and yo…
Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Carry Serious Cardiova…
Most people are aware that consuming too much sugar is not good for our health. A new study from Sweden suggests that not all sweet foods are equivalent, though. Occasional sweet treats like pastries …
What Are the Health Benefits of Cocoa Flavanols?
Do you think of chocolate as a sinful snack or a healthy bite? Chocolate candy itself probably should be considered sinful. It usually contains too much sugar to count as health food. The cocoa flavan…
What Are the Health Benefits of Coffee and Choco…
Americans have a puritanical streak. This way of thinking suggests that if something hurts or tastes bad, it must be good for you. Conversely, if it tastes good, you might conclude it's bad for you. T…
How Can You Overcome the Harms of Sitting Too Mu…
How many hours a day do you sit? Be honest, please. If you work in front of a computer, as so many of us do, we’ll bet you spend more than eight hours a day sitting. And that doesn’t count time si…
What Is the Evidence That Cocoa Flavanols Improv…
An ongoing argument often surfaces around certain holidays, especially Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween. You'll see a number of feature pieces suggesting that chocolate is actually good for you. …
Will Krill Oil Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease…
Could fish oil reduce your risk of heart disease? This question has been puzzling scientists for decades. Some studies have shown benefit, while others have been inconclusive (Circulation, April 11, 2…
Will Certo and Grape Juice Help Your Sore Knees?
People with sore joints face a terrible dilemma. Pain interferes with quality of life. On the other hand, medications like diclofenac and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can make p…
Gout Attacks Increase the Risk for Heart Attacks…
Over 9 million Americans suffer from gout. This inflammatory condition is associated with high levels of uric acid in the bloodstream. When crystals precipitate into joints they cause extreme pain. Th…
Make Sure Your Vegetarian Diet Is High Quality
A vegetarian diet can be beneficial. Scientists who want to know more about the value of vegetarianism often study groups that avoid eating meat, such as Seventh Day Adventists. Many Seventh-Day Adven…
Show 1405: Why Does Anger Harm Your Heart?
This week, we’ll dive into the research on how emotions affect your heart health. Specifically, we talk with two scientists who have studied the impact of anger on blood vessels. How might that shap…
Exercise Hard During Free Time to Offset Workday…
Some experts suggest that sitting is the new smoking. A sedentary job that requires you to sit and stare at a computer screen all day is bad for you. Can you offset the danger if you exercise hard in …
Brewing Heart Health: Caffeine from Coffee and T…
Public health officials frequently tell us DON’T! Don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol, don’t eat processed foods. It’s relatively rare for researchers to say DO this thing that you really like.…
Do We Have Micro Particles of Plastic in Our Bra…
Are you getting tired of reading about plastic? I wouldn't blame you. We are getting exhausted writing about the perils of plastic. That said, almost every week there is new news about problems with p…
Why Haven’t You Been Tested for Lp(a) Levels?
Most people have had a blood test for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). It's been dubbed "bad" cholesterol since the 1980s. Cardiologists write that "the prevalence of severely elevated LDL…
Is Lp(a) Contributing to Unexplained Heart Attac…
Are physicians overlooking a key risk factor for heart disease? Is Lp(a) contributing to unexplained heart attacks? For decades, doctors have focused primarily on LDL cholesterol as a determinant of c…
Woman Has Heart Attack Despite Very Low Choleste…
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine (Aug. 21, 2024) reveals three biomarkers that may be very important in predicting heart disease in women for the next 30 years. The research demonstrates…
Are Weekend Warriors Doing More Good than Harm?
Physical activity is crucial for good health, but many people find it difficult to do workouts during the work week. Some are weekend warriors, exercising intensely when they find the time. Can leisur…
Eggs Are Bad – No, Eggs Are Good – Huh?
Starting in the 1960s, Americans were told that eggs were evil. Dietitians warned that too much cholesterol would clog coronary arteries and contribute to heart attacks. Eggs became a sinful food and …
Shingles Vaccines Against Dementia & Flu Sh…
Viral infections cause a lot of mischief! One need look no further than COVID-19 to verify that there can be long-lasting complications after such illnesses. The neuroscience community has long ignore…
Mediterranean Diet Saves Lives
Over the years, we have written a lot about the Mediterranean diet. You can read how it may help with weight control or improve pregnancy outcomes. Some studies suggest that following such a diet migh…
Why Haven’t Statins Stopped Heart Disease?
Statins are the most prescribed drugs in America. Atorvastatin (Lipitor) alone is taken by nearly 30 million people. If you add simvastatin, rosuvastatin, pravastatin and lovastatin, you get more than…
Drugs That Are More Dangerous in Hot Weather
"Hot as hell" is a phrase we have heard a lot this summer. And with good reason. Temperatures have soared in much of the country. And it's not over yet. Anyone without air conditioning has really been…
Low LDL Cholesterol Linked to Bleeding Strokes
Ask any golfer if you can have too low a golf score and he will think you're nuts. After all, the lowest score wins in golf. Ask almost any cardiologist if you can have too low LDL cholesterol levels …
Sauna Bathing and Its Health Benefits
Finnish researchers have been studying the health benefits of sauna bathing for years. A study published several years ago in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings reviewed the evidence for cardiovascular and o…
Does Chocolate Really Help Your Heart?
Most people think of chocolate as a sinful indulgence. We may be prepared to pay the price of the extra calories, but we don't expect it to have any health benefits. Might we be wrong, though? Could c…
Are Non-Sugar Sweeteners a Healthy Choice?
When people hear that sugar-sweetened beverages pose health hazards, some respond by switching to diet soft drinks. That certainly seems reasonable, but evidence now suggests it might not be the best…
How to Stay Healthy with a Mediterranean Diet
Would you like to be able to improve your health by what you put on your plate? Health professionals and patients alike may doubt that diet can be as powerful as pills. When it comes to important bene…
Best Way to Take Aspirin for a Heart Attack
Taking aspirin at the earliest signs of a heart attack could save a surprising number of lives. Researchers writing in the Journal of the American Heart Association (May 1, 2024) created a population …
Which Diuretic is Best for Hypertension? HCTZ or…
When a patient is diagnosed with high blood pressure that is not controlled by diet, exercise or other lifestyle interventions, doctors start writing prescriptions. One of their first-line drugs is al…
Overdosing on Vegetable Oil Could Be Deadly
For decades, nutrition experts urged Americans to substitute vegetable oil for saturated fats such as butter and lard. They assumed that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in oils such as saffl…
Will Boosting Your Step Count Save Your Life?
How many steps do you take a day? You may have heard that you should be taking 10,000 steps a day. Initially, that ideal step count was not based on evidence, but rather was a marketing maneuver. Howe…
Why Would the FDA Approve Ineffective Drugs?
I cannot answer that question. It mystifies me why the Food and Drug Administration allows so many worthless medications on the market. Since I cannot understand the FDA’s motivations, perhaps a mor…
Should You Restrict the Number of Eggs You Eat?
For decades, public health authorities have been warning Americans to restrict the number of eggs they eat. Egg yolks are rich in cholesterol, and high cholesterol levels are associated with heart dis…
If You Are on Medicare & Overweight You May…
Juliette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman, Nolan Sroczynski, and Anthony Damico Published: Apr 24, 2024 This article was originally published on the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) website at this link. The FDA…
Sitting Sabotages Good Health
Some health experts have taken to calling sitting the new smoking. In other words, a sedentary lifestyle puts you are significant risk for poor cardiovascular outcomes. How Can We Counteract the Risks…
How Helpful Are Beta Blockers After Heart Attack…
Beta blockers are among the most trusted and most prescribed drugs in the pharmacy. This category of medications includes atenolol (Tenormin), carvedilol (Coreg), metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol) and th…
How Does Red Yeast Rice Compare to Statins?
Tens of millions of people take statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs. Many physicians believe such drugs are dramatically effective against heart disease. We will not deal with that controversial to…