Columns
Good to the last drop
New research suggests drinking coffee might actually be good for you Coffee drinkers, rejoice! The heavenly brew, once deemed harmful to health, is turning out to be, if not quite a health food, at least a low-risk drink, and in many ways a beneficial one. It could protect against diabetes, liver cancer, cirrhosis, and Parkinson’s…
Good night? Good luck.
As the economy sinks, insomnia increases and America searches for a good night’s sleep Chris Dalto is an affable fellow, a happily married father of two and a lawyer-turned-financial planner. Normally, he sleeps like a baby. But last fall, when Lehman Brothers tanked and the stock market fell apart, Dalto began waking up at 3…
‘I . . . feel like a man again’
Testosterone was once off limits for men with prostate cancer. Things are changing. Manny Hamelburg, 68, a retired businessman from Holbrook, had fought prostate cancer for years. First he tried radiation, then a drug with side effects that nearly killed him, and finally Lupron, a drug that blocks production of testosterone, the hormone that can…
Cold comfort
Think you know how to avoid the sniffles? Maybe not. If there’s any good news about the common cold, it might be this: You don’t have to stop kissing your sniffling loved one’s lips just to avoid catching their colds. But you probably will want to stop holding hands. That insight comes from research into…
Comparing apples to organic apples
We’d like to think pesticide-free food is better for us, but scientific proof remains elusive. With the recession breathing down our necks, you may be looking for ways to cut the household budget without seriously compromising family well-being. So here’s a suggestion: If you buy organic fruits and veggies, consider going for the less pricey…
When pain arrives – and help does not
I never knew such pain existed. This past spring, my neck suddenly went bonkers — a long-lurking arthritic problem probably exacerbated by hunching over my new laptop. On a subjective scale of 1 to 10 (there is no objective way to measure pain), the slightest wrong move, such as turning my head too fast or…
Environmental cues affect how much you eat
Next time you sit down to dinner, dim the lights – but not too much. Both bright light and dim light may make you eat more. Watch the background music, too. If it’s too fast, you’ll eat fast, and therefore more; too slow and you’ll keep eating. And think small for plates – a portion…
‘Fighting’ isn’t how you deal with cancer
Fight, Ted, fight!” This mantra, chanted over and over to give moral support to Senator Edward M. Kennedy as he faces brain cancer, drives me nuts. The caring behind it is wonderful; the metaphor is not. Cancer is not a football game. It’s more of an involuntary dance with a partner you didn’t choose, more…
Time to cleanse? Think again
To read the Internet ads, you’d think that our bodies were awash in “toxins” – usually unspecified – and that we should therefore go to dramatic lengths, like “colon cleansing” and chelation to get rid of all this bad stuff. Don’t believe it. Or, to put it a bit more gently, don’t risk your health…
Women athletes win equal time on injury list
A week from today, 10,375 women – and 14,737 men – are expected to run in the Boston Marathon. The presence of so many women – the most ever entered in the historic race – is a sure sign of how far women have come in athletics. So is this: In 1972, before Title IX,…
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