Staying Healthy Archive

Saturated and trans fat? No. But replacing carbohydrates with unsaturated fat could lead to a longer, healthier life.

Fat of any kind packs in the calories. A single gram contains nine, compared with four in a gram of carbohydrate. So, yes, fat can be fattening if you eat too much of it. Of course, the same is true of carbohydrate. Extra calories that lead to extra weight, no matter where they come from, aren't healthy.

Exercising may be the last thing you want to do when your joints are stiff and achy. But exercise is a crucial part of osteoarthritis treatment in order to  ease pain and stay active.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic and progressive disease characterized by loss of the cartilage that covers and protects the ends of the bones where they meet at a joint. Without this protective coating, bone rubs against bone, causing irritation and inflammation. The result is pain and stiffness in the joint and often pain in the muscles and ligaments that surround it.

Why sleep is important to your health and how to repair sleep deprivation effects.

If sleep were a credit card company, many of us would be in deep trouble.

Medical evidence suggests that for optimum health and function, the average adult should get seven to nine hours of sleep daily. But more than 60% of women regularly fall short of that goal. Although each hour of lost slumber goes into the health debit column, we don't get any monthly reminders that we've fallen in arrears.

Any diet that helps you take in fewer calories will help you shed pounds.

The "Atkins is best" headlines you may have seen in March 2007 had champions of the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet smiling — and hoping that people wouldn't read the study on which the news reports were based.

There are no official fitness guidelines for older adults, but the basic exercises for senior are the same at every age.

The average 65-year-old can expect to reach her 85th birthday, and the average 75-year-old will live to age 87. How we'll celebrate those birthdays — as the life of the party or immobilized on the sidelines — has a lot to do with how we spend our time today. Although none of us can be certain that we'll be spared debilitating disorders that could rob us of our mobility, there's no doubt that regular exercise will help improve our ability to function at almost any age or level of fitness.

Suggestions for how to be healthy and 'green'

Aside from pesticide usage and a few other issues, most of us haven't worried much about the connections between health issues and the environment. For our health, we work on our waistlines and fret over our cholesterol levels. For the environment, we recycle and maybe drive a fuel-efficient car.

But because of accelerating climate change and the havoc it could wreak, it's not so easy to send environmentalism off into its own separate compartment these days. In February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the evidence for global warming is "unequivocal." Everything we do now can be measured for its effect on the environment — and greenhouse gas emissions in particular.

What you eat can fuel or cool inflammation, a key driver of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.

Inflammation is an essential part of the body's healing system. Without it, injuries would fester and simple infections could be deadly. Too much of a good thing, though, is downright dangerous. Chronic low-grade inflammation is intimately involved in all stages of atherosclerosis, the process that leads to cholesterol-clogged arteries. This means that inflammation sets the stage for heart attacks, most strokes, peripheral artery disease, and even vascular dementia, a common cause of memory loss. Think of it as friendly fire "" yourself attacking yourself.

Inflammation doesn't happen on its own. It is the body's response to a host of modern irritations that our Stone Age genes haven't quite caught up to. The main ones are smoking, lack of exercise, high-fat and high-calorie meals, and highly processed foods.

A revolution in thinking about coronary blood vessels could change the way women's heart problems are diagnosed and treated.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women." There, we've said it again. Even though it's always been the case, we still need to remind ourselves that we're far more likely to succumb to heart disease than to breast cancer. Nine times as likely, in fact.

Vitamin D's primary function is to help the body absorb calcium, though it may also protect against prostate cancer and other diseases. Many people do not get enough from sunlight, its natural source, and should get the needed amount via a supplement.