Staying Healthy Archive

New data shows substantial benefit in eliminating or reducing consumption of red meat and substituting healthier proteins.

Red meat: in addition to raising the risk for colorectal cancer and other health problems, it can actually shorten your life. That's the clear message of the latest research based on data from two ongoing, decades-long Harvard School of Public Health studies of nurses and other health professionals. It appears "healthy meat consumption" has become an oxymoron.

Q. Brown age spot on my face seems to be getting larger. Should I be concerned?

A. A brown-colored spot anywhere on the skin that's getting larger is always something to be concerned about. Most brown spots on the skin turn out to be nothing serious, but some are melanoma—a potentially fatal skin cancer. There are certain danger signs that increase the possibility that a brown spot is melanoma. It's called the ABCDE rule.

The dangers of a broken heart aren't just for poets and songwriters. Turns out, the risk of heart attack is 21 times higher than normal the first day after the death of a significant loved one and six times higher the first week, according to a study published in the January 9, 2012, Circulation.

"Grieving people are not getting enough sleep and are walking around with elevated levels of adrenaline and stress-related hormones," says Dr. Thomas Lee, a cardiologist and a professor at Harvard Medical School. "These tendencies can lead to increased clamping down of one's arteries, a faster heart rate and elevated blood pressure, all of which can increase the chance of a rupture of atherosclerotic plaques, causing a heart attack."

A Harvard expert says most people don't use enough.

If your summer reading list usually includes mysteries and the latest bestsellers, think about adding this selection: the label on your next bottle of sunscreen.

Medical conditions that wake you up can potentially lead to increased recall of dreams—including disturbing ones. A person who wakes up during the dreaming phase of sleep is "closer" to the dream and will therefore recall it more vividly. As for late-night eating directly causing nightmares, small studies of individuals who ate immediately before sleep have not shown a consistent relationship.

However, nocturnal eating can interrupt your sleep in various ways, prompting recall of disturbing dreams by the mechanism described above. For example, eating a large meal, especially a high-carbohydrate meal, could trigger night sweats because the body generates heat as it metabolizes the food. Also, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), caused by lying down with a full stomach, may trigger symptoms that wake you up.

Practicing seven healthy lifestyle habits might reduce your risk of dying from heart disease or any other cause. Unfortunately, few women are following all of these habits.

What is blue light? The effect blue light has on your sleep and more.

Although it is environmentally friendly, blue light can affect your sleep and potentially cause disease. Until the advent of artificial lighting, the sun was the major source of lighting, and people spent their evenings in (relative) darkness. Now, in much of the world, evenings are illuminated, and we take our easy access to all those lumens pretty much for granted.

But we may be paying a price for basking in all that light. At night, light throws the body's biological clock—the circadian rhythm—out of whack. Sleep suffers. Worse, research shows that it may contribute to the causation of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

The heart-healthy Mediterranean diet also seems to be good for the brain.

Do you want to improve your mind tonight? We'd like you to consider what you eat for dinner. Our chef suggests the Brain Food Special—a tender fillet of wild caught salmon in curry sauce over a pilaf of brown rice and lentils, accompanied by a baby spinach salad lightly dressed in olive oil and topped with slivered almonds. For dessert, enjoy a melange of orange slices and blueberries. Complement your meal with a crisp glass of wine if you choose.

Becoming more conscientious could be your ticket to better health and longer life.

Our weight, our genes, our diet, whether we exercise or smoke (or used to)—we accept that these are all part of the complicated mix that determines how healthy we are, the diseases we might get, and those that we might avoid.