Tag: Mind & Body

Americans Are Getting Quite Plump During Lockdown

It was about one year ago, in spring 2020, when the jokes about the “quarantine 15” weight gain began making the rounds. But one year later, a longitudinal cohort study by researchers at the University of California shows that we underestimated the problem. According to the Trust for America’s Health State of Obesity 2020 report, 42.4…


Long Work Hours Linked to High Rate of Repeat Heart Attack

The whole idea of working long hours never made sense to me. Why put so much emphasis on one thing at the expense of so many others? A new study by researchers at Université Laval published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology is showing that those long hours don’t make sense to your heart,…


Surprising Ways to Get a Better Night’s Sleep

A lot of us are suffering from lack of sleep these days. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 35 percent of adult Americans regularly get less than seven hours of sleep per night, with African Americans and other minority groups sleeping even less than that. With the pandemic still in full…


The First 2 Steps to Creating Resilience

When life is shaking us up and we’re feeling stressed, it can be tough to feel resilient. Resilience helps us to deal with chaos and overwhelm. But how do we create it when we feel like we’re underwater? The first step is to remove things that are adding unnecessary stress. The second step is to…


The Goodness and Gifts of Gratitude

A young man I know drives to work from Front Royal to the traffic-tangled roads of Northern Virginia. He recently told a mutual acquaintance that he uses the hour-long trek to prepare his mind for the day’s tasks. On the way home, however, he spends that same drive decompressing from work and readying himself to…


Limit the Risk of Stress Fractures This Spring

Warmer temperatures and brighter days may be calling your name, motivating you to get outside for a walk or run. But tread carefully—it’s been a long winter, and your bones might not be ready for the impact of daily runs on concrete just yet. Along with rejuvenation, spring is the season of stress fractures. Stress…


Taking Bone Meds? They Increase Your Risk of This Type of Fracture

Bisphosphonate drugs are a go-to treatment for osteoporosis, but they come with a significant risk of triggering an atypical femoral fracture, especially if you use them for more than five years. Their use is controversial, particularly because bone mineral density isn’t an accurate measure of bone strength and fracture risk. And yet, bisphosphonate drugs are the…


10 Ways to Age-Proof Your Knees

Your knees are the workhorse joint of your body. They’re considered to be your body’s shock absorbers. With each step, they absorb one and a half times the weight of your body, and when you run or jump, they absorb much more. It makes sense that your knees may be the first of your joints…


Why Most People Are Deficient in Minerals

It’s estimated that 1 in 3 Americans is deficient in at least 10 minerals, including potassium, manganese, magnesium, and zinc, putting them at risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. “The Mineral Fix,” written by James DiNicolantonio and Siim Land, author of “Metabolic Autophagy,” provides a comprehensive guide about the role of…


Fighting Autism Brain Inflammation With Food

One food may be able to combat all four purported causal factors of autism: synaptic dysfunction, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. Research into this food-based treatment began with efforts to figure out what it is about a fever that has such a dramatic impact on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Already, up to…