Heat waves are getting hotter and longer. Here's how heat can kill, how age, illness, and medications can boost your risk, and how to protect yourself.
It may be easy to remember to load up on fruits and vegetables and limit junk food. Here’s a quiz to remind you about some less-obvious links between diet and health. Each question has only one correct answer. Good luck!
Poor diet is a leading cause of death in the U.S. and has been linked to over 500,000 deaths per year. The rates of diet-related disease among adults in the U.S. are abysmal: over 70% have overweight or obesity; about 50% have diabetes or prediabetes; and over 90% have suboptimal cardiometabolic health, characterized by excess weight; high blood glucose, blood pressure, or lipids (or taking medications for any of these conditions); or a history of cardiovascular disease. Moreover, the direct medical costs and loss of productivity associated with excess weight and diet-related disease is estimated to be almost $1 trillion annually. And that’s before the advent of the new, hugely expensive diet drugs.
Click "View Letter" to continue reading.
Scientists had 38 women sleep for (a) their usual 7 to 9 hours a night or (b) 1½ hours less (about 6 hours) for 6 weeks each. (The women had excess weight or a family history of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high LDL cholesterol, or high triglycerides.)
In March, the Food and Drug Administration added semaglutide to its drug shortages list. That means the pricey popular prescription drug—sold as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss—could be purchased from compounding pharmacies. Here’s what to know about buying any medicines from compounding pharmacies...or from websites you find online.
In people with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes and excess weight, a personalized lower-calorie diet (based on continuous blood sugar monitoring, gut microbiome data, and more) led to no lower long-term blood sugar levels (hemoglobin A1c) and no fewer blood sugar spikes over six months than a one-size-fits-all lower-fat, lower-calorie diet.
We all need vitamins and minerals. But it’s hard to remember which are good for what, which we’re more likely—or extremely unlikely—to run short of, and how much is too much. That’s good to know, when a multi-billion dollar industry keeps trying to sell us more (and ever-pricier) supplements.
