Staying Healthy Archive

Nexium and the other proton-pump inhibitors are great at reducing stomach acid, but that might have some unintended consequences.

 Madison Avenue has given stomach acid a bad name, but it's really kind of a bum rap. Dip into any physiology textbook, and you'll find that stomach acid serves several constructive purposes. Pepsin, an enzyme that is essential to the preliminary digestion of protein, needs an acidic environment in the stomach to be effective. The strongly acidic hydrochloric acid pumped out by cells in the lining of the stomach also plays a direct role in the early digestion of some foods. And stomach acidity is a built-in barrier to infection: many bacteria and other pathogenic fellow travelers don't make it out of the stomach alive because of the low pH levels they encounter there.

Q. How often should a healthy 55-year-old woman have a colonoscopy? Do the benefits outweigh the risk of complications, such as bowel perforation?

A. Colonoscopy is one of several tests used to screen for colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer and cause of cancer mortality (after breast and lung cancer) in American women. In 2018, some 140,000 Americans were diagnosed with the disease, and 50,000 died of it. Experts believe that adequate screening could have prevented perhaps 60% of those deaths.

The last time you saw a doctor for a checkup or other medical reason, she or he probably also asked about your health habits, such whether you smoke, take alcohol, exercise, or use sunscreen or seat belts. Such personal health behaviors have a huge impact on health and mortality, and public health guidelines urge clinicians talk to their patients about them. You probably were not asked what you ate for dinner last night, or what your usual breakfast fare is. But if some Harvard Medical School nutrition experts and their culinary partners have their way, such questions will become as routine as blood pressure checks, and doctors will be dispensing meal preparation advice as readily as they advise patients about the benefits of quitting smoking.

Through a collaboration of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and other health care professionals can take a four-day crash course in the latest findings in nutrition research combined with hands-on classes in selecting and preparing healthy foods at the CIA's Greystone campus in California's Napa Valley (see photo below). Attendees listen to researchers talk about glycemic load, genes and food, and good fats and bad fats, and are instructed in the basics, such as how to use a chef's knife, stock the kitchen, and evaluate olive oil. The goal? Turn clinicians into ambassadors for change in the way American eats.

The snorts, whistles, gasps, and groans you make while sleeping may do more than rob you and your bed partner of a good night's sleep. They may steal years of your life, too. That's the message from two large studies that looked at the influence of sleep apnea, a special cause of snoring, on life span.

What is sleep apnea?

When you breathe, air usually flows soundlessly through the nasal passages and the pharynx (the back of the throat), and then on into the lungs. During sleep, the small muscles that hold open the pharynx relax, allowing the tissue to flop into the airway. Air rushing through this loose tissue can make it vibrate. We hear the vibrations as snoring.

ARCHIVED CONTENT: As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date each article was posted or last reviewed. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. 

Missing out on the "sunshine vitamin" has consequences for more than just bone health.

If you want to keep tabs on your activity level and how many calories you're burning without buying a gadget, check out this government Web site:

www.choosemyplate.gov

It's run by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Why is the USDA in the exercise business? Because the department promulgates nutrition guidelines, and good nutrition necessarily involves energy balance, which means making sure that the amount of calories you're taking in should match the number you're burning — and be less if you are trying to lose weight. So although you can't eat physical activity, it's part of the USDA food pyramid.

Understanding and treating anxiety can often improve the outcome of chronic disease, such as GI tract problems and heart disease.

With headlines warning us of international terrorism, global warming, and economic uncertainty, we're all likely to be a little more anxious these days. As an everyday emotion, anxiety — the "fight or flight" response — can be a good thing, prompting us to take extra precautions. But when anxiety persists in the absence of a need to fight or flee, it can not only interfere with our daily lives but also undermine our physical health. Evidence suggests that people with anxiety disorders are at greater risk for developing a number of chronic medical conditions. They may also have more severe symptoms and a greater risk of death when they become ill.

The anatomy of anxiety

Anxiety is a reaction to stress that has both psychological and physical features. The feeling is thought to arise in the amygdala, a brain region that governs many intense emotional responses. As neurotransmitters carry the impulse to the sympathetic nervous system, heart and breathing rates increase, muscles tense, and blood flow is diverted from the abdominal organs to the brain. In the short term, anxiety prepares us to confront a crisis by putting the body on alert. But its physical effects can be counterproductive, causing light-headedness, nausea, diarrhea, and frequent urination. And when it persists, anxiety can take a toll on our mental and physical health.

Who needs to be advised on how to brush their teeth? More of us than you might think. Seven suggestions on the right way to clean your teeth.

Toothbrushing may be the most ingrained of all health habits. We take a toothbrush with us when we travel. Most people can't imagine getting through a day without brushing at least once and probably twice. And there's apparently enough money in it to make expensive advertising campaigns worthwhile. Imagine if other health habits — exercise, eating whole grains, getting enough sleep — had the ad budgets of Crest or Colgate?

Bulging blood vessels in the backside can be a pain, but you have many options for treating them.

Some women have a passing encounter with hemorrhoids during pregnancy. By midlife, many more of us have had one or more of the classic symptoms, which include rectal pain, itching, bleeding, and possibly prolapse (protrusion of hemorrhoids into the anal canal). Leakage of feces may also occur. Although hemorrhoids are rarely dangerous, they can be a painful recurrent bother. Fortunately, there's a lot we can do about them.

Internal cleansing may empty your wallet, but is it good for your health?

Spring usually makes us think of cleaning — putting our records in order for the tax season, emptying our closets of winter coats, and readying our gardens. As if those chores aren't enough, we're now hearing that our bodies need a thorough internal cleansing as well. A growing number of infomercials, Web sites, and print articles are urging us to eliminate the systemic buildup of toxins that supposedly results from imprudent habits or exposure to hazardous substances in the environment. Such toxins, we're told, will sap our vitality and threaten our health unless we take measures to "detox" ourselves.