Heart Attack
Why Is the Sugar Substitute Erythritol Risky?
Everyone on the planet may already know that sugar is bad for our health. Excessive sugar contributes to cavities in teeth and pimples on skin. It adds pounds and displaces more nutritious foods like …
Why You Should Eat the Mediterranean Way
The Mediterranean diet has been associated with a number of health benefits. We have written previously about studies showing that a Mediterranean-style eating plan can protect the brain, reduce arthr…
Overdosing on Vegetable Oil Could Be Deadly
For decades, nutrition experts urged Americans to substitute vegetable oil (aka seed oil) for saturated fats such as butter and lard. They assumed that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in oil…
Is Lp(a) the Best Kept Secret in Heart Disease?
Ask most people about their risk factors for heart disease and they will likely mention total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C (“bad”) cholesterol and HDL-C (“good”) cholesterol. Sometimes people even …
Could a Shingles Shot Save Your Memory? Rethinki…
For decades, neuroscientists have promoted the idea that the cause of dementia is the accumulation of amyloid plaque in the brains of patients with Alzheimer disease. Drug companies spent billions to …
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 …
Big Pharma’s Dirty Secret: How Its Math Mi…
The pharmaceutical industry is unbelievably lucrative. According to numerous analysts, drug companies grossed more than $600,000,000,000 last year. In case that many zeroes is a bit mind boggling, tha…
Why Grandma Was Right About Vegetables
Your grandmother may have told you to eat your vegetables. Ours certainly urged us to do so. If she did, she was right. Vegetables and fruits are good sources of flavanols, plant compounds that appear…
Are Pecans Good for Your Heart?
Have you ever wondered whether your favorite food is good for your heart? If your favorite foods include ice cream and cookies, you don't have to wonder. The answer is a clear no. If you love oatmeal …
Purple Peril? Grape Juice Interaction Differs fr…
Have you ever been warned about a grape juice interaction with the heartburn medicine omeprazole (Prilosec)? I didn't think so. If you were to poll most pharmacists and physicians and ask them about s…
Helping Your Heart Means Boosting Your Brain
We have long suspected that taking care of your heart health with exercise, a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, stress management and social interaction could also benefit your brain. …
Show 1421: Is Lp(a) the Heart Risk No One Talks …
This week, we get in-depth information on Lp(a), the heart risk no one talks about. You have heard of cholesterol, and you may even know what your cholesterol level is. The compound lipoprotein a may …
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…
Chelation Therapy: Breakthrough or Bust for Hear…
Please prepare yourself for medical whiplash. Brace for a trip down a rabbit's hole into a Wonderland of contradictions. Mainstream medicine believed for many years that chelation therapy was worthles…
FDA Flip-Flops on Testosterone Heart Risk? What …
Beware testosterone treatment! That has been the message from the Food and Drug Administration for years. A decade ago the agency stated unequivocally that there was a scary testosterone heart risk: "…
What Is the Best Diet to Lower Cholesterol?
Have you ever wondered what you should be eating to optimize your health? Nutrition scientists have been arguing that the entire dietary pattern matters more than a handful of individual foods reputed…
FDA Approves Heart Benefits for Wegovy Weight Lo…
Obesity is a world-wide problem. It’s no wonder, then, that injectable drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) have become incredibly popular. Last year, Wegovy…
Up to an Egg a Day Is Fine, Scientists Say
For decades, people have been confused about whether it is safe to eat eggs. Doctors warned that yolks contain a lot of cholesterol and worried that might translate into atherosclerosis for omelet lov…
Wegovy or Ozempic: Semaglutide to Prevent Heart …
Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss are more familiar brand names for the pharmaceutical compound semaglutide. Seven years ago, when Ozempic was first introduced to treat type 2 diabetes, …
If Statins Save Lives, Why Is Heart Disease Stil…
The American Heart Association just released its annual report on Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics. No surprises. Heart disease remains our number 1 killer (Circulation, Jan. 27, 2025). The total n…
Is It Really Risky to Eat Red Meat?
For years, scientists have been trying to figure out if people who eat red meat are more likely to die prematurely of heart disease. In 2019, a series of research papers published in the Annals of Int…
Will You Live Longer If You Sip Green Tea?
Is coffee or tea your beverage of choice? A study from China, where a lot of people prefer tea, suggests that you might want to sip green tea. And a study from Japan, where green tea is just as popula…
Expecting Perfection, Accepting Mediocrity: Asse…
Do you expect things to work? When you turn the key or push a button on your car’s ignition switch, do you anticipate that the vehicle will start? Most people do. What about your computer or smart p…
Show 1414: Finding Your Exercise Prescription fo…
This week, two distinguished exercise physiologists tell us why we each need an exercise prescription for life. Dr. Benjamin Levine has worked with the Dallas Bed Rest and Training Study to discover t…
Researchers Wonder If Alcohol or Wine Is Good fo…
Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go. We are not advocating drinking alcohol if you are a teetotaler. What we are trying to do is make sense out of conflicting headlines. Over the last few y…
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.…