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Why do we age? There is no single factor responsible for why we age, but research has found several important factors affecting how fast we age. These are factors we can control to a large extent, which means that we can actually slow down the aging process. I will write...

You may have heard that high cholesterol does not significantly increase the risk for cardio vascular disease. You may also have heard that high cholesterol food like eggs will not increase your total cholesterol and LDL, the so called bad cholesterol. However, if you look a little bit closer at...

Vascular endothelium function tend to decline as we get older unless we have a healthy lifestyle and eat a certain way. The endothelium is the inner layer of the blood vessels. Research has shown that the severity of endothelial dysfunction relates to cardiovascular disease (Widlansky ME, et al. 2003). Is...

Tendinitis is another common problem we see more of as we age. As with other chronic conditions, low grade inflammation is involved. Metabolic syndrome, which involves insulin resistance and low grade inflammation, increases the risk for tendinitis. What we eat on a daily basis is for that reason very important...

We used to believe that inflammation was not a factor in osteoarthritis. This has, however, been proven to be wrong. Inflammation has a catabolic effect on cartilage(it causes cartilage damage). Whatever we can do to reduce excessive inflammation would help to reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis. What you eat on...

We can’t always change our environment to what we would ideally like it to be. The solution is to instead train ourselves so stressful situations don’t affect us adversely. This means you would be more stress resistant. Research has shown that this can be done, and it does not take...

Maybe you think intermittent fasting will make you tired and you will not be able to do much. That may be a logical expectation since we need food to produce energy, or do we? No, not really, we don’t need food to produce energy when we do intermittent fasting because...

Fasting for several days is not very appealing to most people and may not even be desirable, as it can produce some unwanted side effects in addition to benefits. Intermittent fasting however is not that difficult and can be implemented several ways without any negative effects. Research on alternate day...

Most of the time when we think about weight loss and improving the biochemistry, we think about eating less and maybe what kind of food to eat. What about the timing of food? Does it matter what time of the day you eat, and when you eat the most calories?...

Because oxidative stress causes tissue damage, the following study investigated pro-oxidant and antioxidant status in patients with osteoarthritis. A significant increase in the levels of lipid peroxidation products was found in the red blood cells of the participants with osteoarthritis (Surapaneni KM, Venkataramana G, 2007). It was also found that...

As more and more people live longer, the rate of Alzheimer’s disease is also increasing. It is interesting that one of the emerging causative factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology is oxidative stress. This has been attributed to decreased levels of the antioxidant glutathione in the brain (Sahara S, Mandal...

Oxidative stress is an important factor in the development of atherosclerosis (buildup in the arteries). For that reason, measuring oxidative stress could be used as a predictor of early atherosclerosis. This is what was investigated in a study of healthy non-smokers (Ashfaq S, et al. 2006). Carotid intima-media thickness was measured...

Our cells are exposed to assaults all the time. That has a lot to do with why we age and get sick. Since that’s the case the body has ways to protect itself, otherwise we would not get very old. The most effective form of protection from free radical damage...

Why should you care about the bacteria you have in your gastrointestinal tract? Does it really matter as long as you don’t have diarrhea? Yes, it does matter. The type of bacteria you have in your gastrointestinal tract affects much more than your gastrointestinal tract. These bacteria can have an impact on...

Magnesium is usually not what we think of when it comes to joint health and osteoarthritis. Magnesium is, however, also affecting the health of your joints. Research indicates that magnesium affects several pathways that have been implicated in osteoarthritis, including inflammatory mediators, cartilage damage, and defective chondrocyte biosynthesis, among other...

Cardiovascular disease will increase your risk of dying, that is well established. If you could decrease your risk for cardiovascular disease, you would decrease your risk of dying. The research I review here will show you a very easy way to do that. The study included 9,820 participants with an average...

Stress is causing anxiety and tension, and who likes that. Would it not be nice if you could reduce both anxiety and tension quickly when you need to? There is research showing that pressure on certain areas(points on the ear) will reduce anxiety (Kober A, et al. 2003). Patients who...

As men get older prostate cancer gets more and more common. Here are some interesting facts. After reviewing 13 independent studies, the researchers concluded that the consumption of milk and dairy products increases the risk of prostate cancer (Qin LQ, et al. 2007). Milk stimulated the growth of prostate cancer...

We know that exercise, incorporated with a plant based diet and stress management, has a beneficial effect on prostate cancer, but what about exercise on it’s own? This has now been researched and here are the results. Patients with recurrence following radical prostatectomy, or patients managed on active surveillance, were...

A lot of people think their genetic makeup decides how healthy or sick they will be. This is, however, a big misconception. Science shows that our genes only contribute 10-20% of the risk (Willett WC, 2002). Environmental factors which includes diet and life-style are the main contributors to cardiovascular disease,...