Recent Blog Articles
Tick season is expanding: Protect yourself against Lyme disease
What? Another medical form to fill out?
How do trees and green spaces enhance our health?
A muscle-building obsession in boys: What to know and do
Harvard Health Ad Watch: New drug, old song, clever tagline
Concussion in children: What to know and do
What color is your tongue? What's healthy, what's not?
Your amazing parathyroid glands
When — and how — should you be screened for colon cancer?
Co-regulation: Helping children and teens navigate big emotions
Diet & Weight Loss Archive
Articles
Can a diabetes drug transform the treatment of obesity?
In people with obesity, a high-dose weekly injection of the diabetes drug semaglutide caused a 15% weight loss and improved other heart-related risk factors. Semaglutide works by mimicking a substance called GLP-1, which is made naturally by the gut and the brain. It prods the pancreas to release insulin when blood sugar rises too high, reduces appetite, and makes people feel full following a meal.
Excess weight linked with worse heart health even if you exercise
In the journals
Can you be "fat and fit" — that is, overweight but still healthy because of regular exercise? There is no simple answer. But one study says that activity does not entirely reverse the effects weight has on heart health. The findings were published online Jan. 26, 2021, by the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
The study involved more than 527,000 adults, almost 70% of whom were men. People were placed into three groups based on their body mass index (BMI): normal, overweight, and obese. They also were grouped by activity level: regularly active (the minimum requirement from the World Health Organization, or WHO); insufficiently active (less than the WHO minimum, but some moderate to vigorous physical activity every week), and no exercise.
6 ways to maximize lung health
Exercising, avoiding pollutant exposure, controlling weight, and other strategies may help you breathe easier.
You may not know it, but your lungs — like many of your organs — have some backup power to get you through situations that stress your health. This excess capacity, called physiological reserve, helps your lungs weather infection and chronic disease.
Lung reserve is robust when we're young, but it diminishes over time as part of the normal aging process. Smoking or long-term lung diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema can accelerate that decline. Diminished reserve makes us more vulnerable to a new or sudden lung problem. "If you get a severe infection and start with lower lung function compared to when you were younger, you have less reserve capacity and you won't tolerate the infection as well," says Dr. Richard Schwartzstein, chief of the Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine Division at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Fight chronic inflammation and cholesterol to protect your heart
It takes a one-two punch to lower these risks for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
High cholesterol has long been known as a bad actor in heart health. Too much LDL (bad) cholesterol in your blood can lead to fatty deposits in your arteries and the formation of artery-narrowing plaque (atherosclerosis), heart attacks, and strokes.
But LDL doesn't act alone. Chronic inflammation — a persistent activation of the immune system — also fuels heart attack and stroke risks. That means you must address both high LDL levels and chronic inflammation to protect your health.
Go big green
Studies show that people who regularly adhere to the Mediterranean diet lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, many types of cancer, and cognitive decline with age. But it’s possible that this healthy diet can be made even healthier. New research suggests that making the diet "greener" by boosting amounts of dark green vegetables, green tea, and plant proteins high in the micronutrients known as polyphenols offers even greater benefits.
Weight-loss diets that keep your heart happy
People should be cautious about weight-loss diets that restrict a specific category of food (such as carbohydrates, fats, or even animal products) without focusing on the overall quality of the foods. Diets with lots of ultra-processed foods or red meat may contribute to poor heart health. But people can lose weight on less-extreme versions of either low-carb or low-fat diets, as long as they focus mostly on unprocessed or minimally processed foods.
Polycystic ovary syndrome and the skin
Polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common cause of infertility in women. In many cases, women with PCOS have skin and hair issues such as acne, hair loss, or excessive hair growth in places where they normally do not have hair. Treatment options vary depending on the symptoms and each woman’s preferences.
Zero weight loss from zero calorie drinks? Say it ain’t so
Trying to cut back on calories by drinking diet soda or flavored sparkling water may not help with weight loss, and some research suggest it may actually lead to weight gain. But why, and what are the alternatives?
Could what we eat improve our sleep?
Diet, exercise, and sleep work together, and all three can have an effect on our daily well-being and longevity. Sleep impacts our eating patterns, and our eating patterns affect our sleep: lack of quality sleep may make people eat more, and make less healthy food choices, but certain foods contain substances that may enhance sleep.
"Green" Mediterranean diet: Better than the original?
Research we're watching
Widely considered the healthiest diet for your heart, the Mediterranean diet is rich in plant-based foods and features only small amounts of meat and dairy products. But a variation that includes more green plant foods may be even better for you, a small study suggests.
The study included 294 sedentary, moderately obese people whom researchers randomly divided into three groups. Each received different dietary advice: a standard healthy diet, a low-calorie Mediterranean diet, or a "green" Mediterranean diet. Both Mediterranean diet groups included about a quarter-cup of walnuts daily, and poultry and fish replaced beef and lamb.
Recent Blog Articles
Tick season is expanding: Protect yourself against Lyme disease
What? Another medical form to fill out?
How do trees and green spaces enhance our health?
A muscle-building obsession in boys: What to know and do
Harvard Health Ad Watch: New drug, old song, clever tagline
Concussion in children: What to know and do
What color is your tongue? What's healthy, what's not?
Your amazing parathyroid glands
When — and how — should you be screened for colon cancer?
Co-regulation: Helping children and teens navigate big emotions
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