Staying Healthy Archive

Research is showing benefits for everything from depression to liver disease. Is it just the caffeine?

Remember when people (and their doctors) used to worry that coffee would harm their hearts, give them ulcers, and make them overly nervous?

Obesity may soon overtake smoking as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Even now, overweight and obesity account for almost 216,000 deaths a year, and if present trends continue, the number is sure to rise.

As scientists have struggled to understand why obesity increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and other woes, they have refined the definition of obesity. Because the hazard is not body weight but body fat, simple height and weight charts have given way to a mathematic formula that uses these two measurements to calculate the body mass index, or BMI. A BMI between 25 and 30 signals overweight, and a score of 30 or above indicates obesity.

Fish ranks way up there on the list of healthful foods we should be eating more of. But depending on the species and the water it was harvested from, it comes with a catch, because mercury travels up the food chain and accumulates in fish flesh. Brain and neurological damage to children and developing fetuses is the main risk from methylmercury, the form found in fish, but methylmercury is probably not all that healthy for adults, either.

Canadian researchers may have figured out a way for us to eat our fish without the mercury, too. Their lab experiments have shown that the combined effect of cooking fish (sorry, sushi lovers) and tea or black coffee makes mercury far less likely to be taken up by the body. So a few sips of tea or coffee with your salmon or trout could lower the risk of mercury that you're consuming from causing you harm. It's an intriguing idea, but this is a preliminary finding that needs to be backed up by more research.

Warts are extremely common. Most are small and painless. Many will resolve on their own. All are benign. But that doesn't mean warts are trivial. In fact, many are unsightly, some do cause pain, and patients with weakened immune systems can have major problems with warts. However, the most common symptom of all is worry, with embarrassment a close second; both are best treated with a simple dose of information.

What are warts?

A wart is a skin infection caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV affects only humans; it spreads from person to person by direct contact. With the important exception of the strains that are sexually transmitted (see box), HPV is not very contagious. Most people with warts don't remember coming into contact with another case, possibly because it takes so long for a wart to develop after infection occurs. Still, it's likely that most warts develop after HPV enters the body through a minute break in the skin.

Poet and pastor John Donne famously proclaimed "No man is an island." It was true in his day, and because society has become increasingly complex and interdependent over the ensuing 400 years, it's certainly true today. Studies in the modern era show that people can be good medicine and that individuals with strong social supports are healthier than those who are lonely and isolated. Married men, for example, are healthier than their single, divorced, or widowed peers.

It's easy to understand how face-to-face interactions can be beneficial. But research suggests that social interactions have a ripple effect that extends far beyond household and family units. Some of these effects can promote health; others are detrimental. But whether for good or ill, these communitywide effects give networking a new meaning.

Q. More and more nutrition advice seems to be anti-sugar these days. So are artificial sweeteners a good alternative?

A. Sugar in all its forms may be the single most important dietary cause of obesity and heart disease in the American diet today. Stripped of fiber and antioxidants, table sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup cause big jumps in blood glucose and insulin that raise levels of triglycerides, various inflammatory markers, and free oxygen radicals. In addition, the fructose found in most types of sugar may damage the liver and cause insulin resistance.

It all started in 1895, when Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays. Six years later, he was honored with the first Nobel Prize in Physics; by then, doctors were already using primitive x-rays to diagnose illnesses. The collaboration between physicians and physicists has continued ever since, resulting in amazing advances far beyond Roentgen's wildest dreams.

Modern imaging techniques have saved countless lives. But like every medication and operation, these benefits come at a cost, both in dollars and sometimes in health. In the case of imaging, potential problems include both misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis, which often lead to excessive or unnecessary treatment. And additional side effects may result from the very radiation used to produce many types of diagnostic images.

Q. I saw Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate and noticed that poultry was listed as a healthy protein. I am not surprised that you're recommending fish, nuts, or beans. But why poultry?

A. The main reason we listed chicken and turkey as healthy sources of protein is that they have relatively low levels of saturated fat compared with red meat, which, for nutrition purposes, includes beef, lamb, and pork.

Q. I am 70, have had sleep problems, and have started to take Ambien every night. It seems to be working very well. Is it okay if I keep on taking it?

A. When Ambien (the generic name is zolpidem) was approved by the FDA in the early 1990s, it was supposed to be an improvement over the benzodiazepines like lorazepam (Ativan) and triazolam (Halcion) because it acted in a more targeted way and didn't stay in the body as long. Other nonbenzodiazepines were subsequently approved, including Sonata (zaleplon) and Lunesta (eszopiclone).