Staying Healthy Archive

Articles

CDC initiative aims to prevent injuries in older adults

The CDC’s Still Going Strong initiative aims to raise awareness about accidents that lead to injury in adults over age 65 and strategies to prevent them.

Can a daily scoop of collagen powder really improve your skin?

Manufacturers tout collagen supplements as a way to improve signs of skin aging and skin quality. There is some research that shows they may bring skin benefits, reducing wrinkles, speeding wound healing, and improving skin hydration and elasticity. But because supplements aren’t regulated, quality may be highly variable. While collagen supplements are believed to be safe, there aren’t any long-term safety studies to date.

Battle of the bulges

A majority of people over 60 have diverticulosis, a condition in which tiny bulges (called diverticula) appear in weak areas of your colon’s inner wall. The bulges themselves don’t cause symptoms, but they can lead to bleeding or diverticulitis, which occurs when a diverticulum becomes inflamed or infected. People can reduce their risk by eating more fiber and staying physically active.

Look inside your heart

The traditional measures to gauge heart disease risk don’t always tell the whole story. Sometimes more medical information is needed. An increasingly used test to predict a person’s risk for heart attack or stroke is a coronary artery calcium scan. It measures the amount of calcified plaque in the heart’s arteries, high levels of which suggest higher overall plaque buildup. The number can determine if people should begin statin therapy and make additional lifestyle changes.

Green leafy vegetables offer a leg up on muscle strength

Eating high amounts of nitrate-rich green leafy vegetables may improve leg muscle strength and increase walking speed and reduce fatigue.

Ready for your routine medical checkup?

Before the pandemic did you schedule a routine, in-person health checkup every year? Is this necessary or can you safely skip a year or consider a telehealth visit or a combination of in-person and virtual care? There are pros and cons to these options and no single solution will work for everyone.

Wondering about a headline-grabbing drug? Read on

News stories frequently tout "breakthrough" drugs, but how often does this turn out to be true? When you read or hear about the results of a study for a new medication, these steps can help you ask questions to get the full story and a better sense of what it might mean for your health.

Is our healthcare system broken?

The US healthcare system is expensive, complicated, dysfunctional — and broken. The system needs a major overhaul, and the arguments for this fall into a few broad categories: high costs, uneven access, and undue emphasis on areas of spending that do not directly benefit patients

Grill your way to better health

Grilled meat—in particular red meat—has garnered some negative attention from nutritionists in recent years, because in addition to its less-than-stellar nutritional profile, it’s been shown to generate potentially cancer-causing compounds when cooked over high heat. On the grill, the fat and protein in the meat produces harmful, potentially carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Better options are lean chicken and fish, and grilled vegetables.

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