Staying Healthy Archive

Getting one is pretty safe these days, but what if you have second thoughts and want a tattoo removed? Even today's pinpoint lasers may not get rid of it entirely.

People have been getting tattoos for millennia, but only recently has tattooing entered the American mainstream. In a 2004 telephone survey of Americans ages 18 to 50, a quarter of those interviewed said they had a tattoo. Now it's probably more.

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. 

Doctors call it gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD. Millions of men call it heartburn, and many others have coughing, wheezing, or hoarseness without realizing that GERD is to blame. By any name, GERD is common, bothersome, and sometimes serious. It is also expensive, draining the American economy of more than $9 billion a year. But once you know you have GERD, you can control it and prevent complications.

Recent studies suggest that there's been too much focus on calcium for bone health and fracture prevention.

Calcium serves many functions in the body, but the main one is to form the structures that give our bones and teeth their strength and shape. As we get older, the mineral content (there's some phosphorus in there as well) of our skeleton declines. Our bones start to thin out bit by bit, so they become less dense, more brittle, and more likely to break. When this thinning advances to a certain point, it's called osteoporosis. Each year in the United States there are 1.5 million bone fractures associated with osteoporosis, and 250,000 of those breaks will involve a hip.

There are lots of dubious claims and mysterious ingredients, but yes, by trapping water, moisturizing can help with dry skin.

Dry skin by itself isn't a medical worry, although serious cases can result in cracks and fissures that invite infection and inflammation. The real issue is discomfort — dry skin can be sore, tender to the touch, and often itchy (although not all itchy skin is dry). There's also the red, rough, scaly appearance lamented in many advertisements for moisturizers.

This is one problem that hasn't suffered from lack of attention: there are dozens of creams and lotions for dry skin. They are sold as moisturizers, which is more of a marketing term than a medical or scientific one. Indeed, routine skin care is a realm where there's little science to be found. Well-controlled studies of ingredients are few and far between. Companies keep information about ingredients proprietary and are careful to limit claims for what the products do to stay within FDA rules.

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. 

You are what you eat.

It's a bit of folk wisdom that contains more than a kernel of truth. Diet has a powerful influence on many diseases, including America's number two killer, cancer. But because cancer is so complex, with many genetic and environmental factors affecting risk, the link between your menu and your risk has been hard to decipher. In the case of red meat and colon cancer, however, new research provides a plausible explanation for a long-suspected association.

Q. I'm 63, and I've begun to notice a decline in the quality of my fingernails. They have numerous up-and-down ridges, and at the tips, they're always splitting. I've heard you can tell a lot about a person's health from the condition of her nails. What does my split nails say about mine?

A. Some changes in nails can be a sign of an underlying health problem, but the lengthwise nail ridging you describe is usually not one. It's simply a common sign of normal aging. The growth of fingernails and toenails slows as we get older, and their appearance may change. Some nails become yellowed or dull and brittle, and some or all may develop tiny longitudinal ridges. Fingernails tend to become thinner and more fragile, while toenails usually become thicker and harder.

Fat, carbohydrate, and protein are all good for you — as long as you make smart choices.

The rule for healthy eating used to be so simple: If you ate, you were healthy; if you didn't, you weren't. Of course, that rule applied at a time when the average adult didn't make it much beyond his or her 40s. Now that we are living to 80 or beyond, healthy eating isn't quite so straightforward. There's more to it than just getting the calories you need. Why? The foods that supply these calories govern the health of your heart and influence whether or not you will develop cancer, osteoporosis, age-related vision or memory loss, or a host of other chronic conditions.

Four diets forged in clinical trials offer real benefits for the entire cardiovascular system.

Do the basics of healthy eating — more fruits, vegetables, good fats, whole grains, and healthful protein packages, and less of the not-so-good stuff — work for the heart? Indeed they do. A host of studies has shown that each of these elements, by itself, can lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar; improve the flexibility of arteries; or protect against heart attack, stroke, and other forms of cardiovascular disease. Put various pieces together and the protective effect is even more powerful.

I was surprised to see an ad in one of my cooking magazines promoting palm oil as a healthy fat. I thought it was supposed to be really bad for you. What's the story?