Seeing How Vitamin D Affects Your Health
The medical community has known of the benefits of vitamin D on bone health for decades. In more recent years, scientists have discovered that vitamin D may play a role in many other aspects...
Monthly Archive: June 2011
Moving vitamin D around the body
Vitamin D, 25(OH)D3, and calcitriol are carried in the blood by a vitamin D-binding protein. This protein is necessary because these substances aren’t water soluble and can’t dissolve in blood. (Vitamin D dissolves in...
Supple-mental Advice
While your brain’s electric pulses produce enough energy to power a lightbulb, they can be tripped up by mental potholes — causing everything from misplaced keys and forgotten birthdays to more severe memory lapses,...
Threatening 3
With the barrage of dietary advice, it’s hard to know what should be on your menu and what shouldn’t. Keep it simple by looking at the top 5 ingredients on any food label. If...
Regulating the production of vitamin D
Several factors strictly control the amount of active vitamin D produced in the kidneys and in other tissues. The biggest factor is the result of self-regulation. As the amount of calcitriol increases, it blocks...
Get to Know the Vitamin D
You think you have enough vitamin D in your body? You’re in for a surprise. You think you know what vitamin D does for you? You’re in for a shock. Many people don’t have...
Right Advice, Wrong Time
The Joint National Conference on Blood Pressure, a group backed by the National Institutes of Health, has just announced that 45 million Americans are at much greater health risk than they thought. With systolic...
Understanding Cholesterol – Doctor Interview
We’ve all seen headlines that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has revised its guidelines. How do the new guidelines differ from the old? Dr. Howard: We are now emphasizing looking at...
Understanding Cholesterol
Do you know what your cholesterol level is? Experts say you should, since high cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, the nation’s number one killer. According to the current national guidelines, however,...
Elderly Treatment Questioned
When someone experiences a heart attack, he or she are often given medicine called thrombolytic therapy to dissolve blood clots. New guidelines have encouraged the use of this therapy more and more. However, a...
Improving Pain Management
There’s a problem coming to the forefront of the healthcare community. Some 50 million Americans suffer with pain, yet only about 60 percent say they get adequate relief. While that may be due, in...
Magnesium: Nature’s Great Relaxer and Bone’s Best Friend
It might be hard to believe, but a substance that could help prevent America’s number one killer, heart disease, is right on the shelf of your local health food store. This natural mineral is...
Taking the Pain Out of Cancer Treatment
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men. In 1999, it was responsible for at least 40,000 deaths. A drug normally used to treat heroin addicts is included in an approach...
Overcoming Stress
There are two kinds of stress. Short-term stress is what you feel when you, say, miss a train, and it can have an energizing effect on your body. Long-term (chronic) stress can damage your...
Higher Risk of CVD When Siblings Have it
Middle-aged adults with a sibling suffering from cardiovascular disease (CVD) have a 45-percent increased risk for the disease, according to a study. Researchers say cardiovascular disease in a first-degree relative confers increased risk for...
Less Exercise for Arthritis Patients
Middle-aged arthritis patients may need to give up their favorite physical activities to avoid surgery, according to orthopaedic surgeons. At the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Dallas, Arlen...
Got Your Back
About 80% of Americans suffer from a hostile spine at some point in their lives — from muscle spasms, pinched nerves, and aching kinks to chronic, debilitating disk degeneration. What’s more, your posterior side...
Diet for Premenstrual Syndrome PMS
If you want to eliminate PMS, the most important thing you can do is to follow the hormone-balancing diet, and, in particular, take steps to balance your blood sugar. This means cutting out refined...
Cooking Away Prostate Cancer
It’s estimated that 180,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. So far, doctors say one way to prevent the disease is to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Today, we’ll introduce...
Slow ALS Symptoms Dr.’s Q&A
What happens in ALS, and what does it do to a person? Dr. Rosenfeld: ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a motor neuron disease, which means nerve cells are dying. Motor nerve cells normally...
That is the Spirit
Everyone gets down in the dumps at some point. But you don’t have to stay there. Pull yourself up with these boot-strap grabbers: Put on your workout shoes. Physical activity can lift your spirits....
Shoulder Injuries Q&A
What exactly is the rotator cuff? The rotator cuff is about four muscles with a common tendon. They have as their function primarily to internally rotate and externally rotate the arm. It’s an important...
Burn Away Hair
Doctors say it’s non-invasive, quicker than a laser and less painful than the average hair removal technique. It’s called the epilight system. The new device is a customized approach to an age-old problem —...
Artificial Intelligence for Cancer
Computer programs that mimic human intelligence could be the next new method of colon cancer detection, say researchers. Researchers from the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center have devised a method that uses “artificial...
Detect Ovarian Cancer
It’s the fourth leading cancer killer among American women, but unlike breast and cervical cancer, there is no test designed to catch ovarian cancer before it spreads. So what is a woman’s best defense?...
Hidden Hearing Loss Q&A
Why is having fluid in your ears a problem? Dr. Maxwell: Fluid is a problem because it gives you hearing loss. Every child that has fluid in the ears has some sort of hearing...
Breast Cancer Survivors Show Comparable Quality of Life
Most women who undergo surgery and treatment from breast cancer recover from the acute effects of their treatment and have a quality of life comparable to that of other women their age, a California...
New Hope for Children with Arthritis
A new treatment shows encouraging results for children with a severe form of arthritis, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. Researchers are looking for new ways...
An Answer for Fainting
Fainting can be a serious concern for many people. It can happen at any time, causing people who suffer from fainting episodes to give up driving, working and many other daily activities for fear...
Hormonal Headaches
16-million Americans suffer from migraine headaches so intense they can’t function at home or work. 75-percent are women. Researchers believe they finally understand the root of the migraine problem. Three years ago, Patricia suffered...