Last time we talked about four things that almost all experts agree are bad for you. Today let’s talk about things that those same experts would agree are good for you!
Archive for April, 2010
The Four Horsemen of Unhealthy Living
On April - 28 - 2010Comments Off on The Four Horsemen of Unhealthy Living
Research published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine has linked 4 unhealthy behaviors to increased risk of death. Want to shorten your lifespan by 12 years? Want to be three times more likely to have a heart attack and four times more likely to get cancer? If not, you’ll want to avoid these usual suspects.
Book Review: The Drinking Man’s Diet and The Drinking Man’s Diet Cookbook
On April - 26 - 20101 COMMENT
Years before either Dr. Atkins or Dr. Ornish published their first diet books (1972 and 1983 respectively), there was The Drinking Man’s Diet: How to Lose Weight with a Minimum of Willpower. Less than 60 pages long, this slim volume proposes to make readers slim while still allowing indulgences like a cocktail at lunch or — as the back cover brags — “two 6:00 PM tension-breaking martinis”. How does it work? Or more to the point, does it work?
The Flipside of BMI
On April - 23 - 2010Comments Off on The Flipside of BMI
Body Mass Index — BMI — is something we have discussed before. It’s a simple way of relating a person’s weight to their height, which makes it easier to generalize about populations of people. However, BMI has long been controversial. Many people, most of whom have a BMI over 25, criticize the measurement as being inaccurate, too generic, and meaningless as a measurement of obesity. It turns out that those critics are right, just not how they thought.
My Life on the D List
On April - 21 - 20101 COMMENT
A lot has been made of new research showing that tanning beds can be “addictive.” Indeed, some people — including many dermatologists — want to see tanning beds banned! The FDA Advisory Panel wants restrictions on the use of tanning beds by minors. Politicians have imposed additional taxes on tanning bed use like the taxes on cigarettes. But here’s the problem: tanning beds can be of great benefit to people with vitamin D deficiency, and that is more common than you think.