Staying Healthy Archive

Q. My family has squabbled about oats for some time. Some members say that to get the biggest health benefit from oats you need to eat them raw, at room temperature, and moistened with water. Others say they should be cooked. Does cooking take something beneficial out of oats? Can you bring us some peace at breakfast time?

A. Eating a bowl of raw oats "moistened with water" doesn't sound all that appetizing. And I am not sure it makes sense from a nutrition perspective. Normal cooking takes little away from oats. In fact, cooking helps release some nutrients that your body can't extract from raw oats.

While saturated fat isn't a health food, it isn't a complete demon, either.

In most situations, the KISS principle — which stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid — is a logical and practical guide. Sometimes, though, simplifying can have disastrous results. Take the case of dietary fat.

A persistent cough that lasts longer than a few weeks can be worrisome, but for nonsmokers, the most common causes include asthma, bronchitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and medication for high blood pressure.

Advance care directives allow you to make your health care wishes known at a time when you are unable to speak for yourself.

Most of us value our ability and freedom to make choices, especially about medical treatment. But what if you lose the capacity to make decisions or let your wishes be known? How will clinicians know what treatments you want, or don't want? Who would communicate your wishes to them?

Though the visceral fat that lies behind the abdominal wall makes up only a small percentage of the body's fat, a growing body of research indicates that it is linked to a number of diseases and conditions.

NutritionSource, a Web site developed by the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, has an in-depth package of articles called "Cutting Salt and Sodium." One of the articles, co-authored by the Culinary Institute of America, a leader in teaching chefs and other food service workers, offers 25 science-based strategies for cutting back on salt. (Click here for a printable version.)

The Nutrition Source

Tasting Success with Cutting Salt: Twenty-Five Science-Based Strategies & Culinary Insights

Developed by the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health & The Culinary Institute of America

The Institute of Medicine's newly released report, Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States, focuses on big-picture strategies for reining in America's salt habit. (1) Although the report's recommendations represent an essential step forward, there are many things that individuals, chefs, and organizations can do right now to reduce sodium.

Q. I take ibuprofen p.m. on occasion — maybe once a month or so — to help me get to sleep. It seems to work. Is that okay?

A. Ibuprofen p.m. is a combination medication that contains ibuprofen and diphenhydramine, which is the active ingredient in Benadryl, an antihistamine taken for allergies.

Sleep-maintenance insomnia common complaint among women at midlife

You wake up and look at the clock: it's 3 a.m. You tell yourself you've got to get back to sleep, but thoughts about yesterday's troubles, the coming day's challenges, and all those "must-do's" race through your mind. You toss and turn and worry about not getting enough sleep. Maybe you doze off for an hour or so, but when the alarm clock gets you up for the day, you're far from rested.

Insomnia — inability to get the sleep you need to wake up refreshed — is the most common sleep complaint in the United States. It often takes the form of sleep-maintenance insomnia — that is, difficulty staying asleep, and in particular, waking too early and struggling to get back to sleep. Like difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night, called sleep-onset insomnia, sleep-maintenance insomnia is more common in women than in men.

Intestinal infection known as C. diff can spread through spores and cause diarrhea

Why would you get an intestinal infection, like C. diff, from treating a different illness with antibiotics?

When you're admitted to a hospital, you expect to receive tests and treatments that will make you feel better. When you get antibiotics in the hospital, you expect that the drugs will treat or prevent infection. But it doesn't always work that way. A distressing number of patients acquire infections while they are in the hospital. And antibiotic therapy can actually increase the odds of coming down with a hospital-acquired infection, particularly when the cause is a bacterium named Clostridium difficile. Although doctors are working hard to control intestinal infections caused by the bug commonly (if not fondly) known as C. diff, the problem is rapidly becoming more common, more serious, and harder to treat.

Q. I belch a lot and get a feeling of fullness in the upper abdomen. Is excessive belching  a common condition? What are the causes and cures? I would prefer natural remedies.

A. Belching and feeling full are normal, everyday experiences. So, what makes them "excessive"? There's no precise definition. But if you start belching or feeling full more often than you have in the past, or if belching and fullness are causing you distress and discomfort, then I'd consider that excessive belching and a problem that you should try to solve.