heart disease

High Blood Pressure: The Silent Killer

Thumbnail image for High Blood Pressure: The Silent Killer

The thing about high blood pressure is that at least 25% of folks who have it don’t know they have it. It flies under the radar. No pain, no symptoms, (though it’s often been quipped that the first symptom of high blood pressure is a heart attack). About one out of three adults in the [...]

Read the full article →

Why Lowering Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease

Thumbnail image for Why Lowering Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease

Trying to prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol is like trying to prevent obesity by cutting the lettuce out of your Big Mac. Surprised? Read on. Recently, cardiologist Stephen Sinatra and I came together to write a book—“The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease and the Statin-Free Plan That Will” (now [...]

Read the full article →

The Five “Must Read” Nutrition Books of 2012

Thumbnail image for The Five “Must Read” Nutrition Books of 2012

This is the time of year where book and movie critics come up with their “Best of the Year” lists, so I thought it a perfect time to do my own version of same. These five books—only three of which actually came out this year—are must reading for anyone interested in health, nutrition and diet. [...]

Read the full article →

Does Vitamin C Deficiency Cause Heart Disease?

Thumbnail image for Does Vitamin C Deficiency Cause Heart Disease?

I’ve long maintained that government recommendations for minimum daily requirements for most nutrients should be ignored. Frankly, they’re idiotic and reactionary. They were developed with the idea of preventing major nutritional deficiencies in the majority of people, and as such, they represent the pinnacle of what I call “minimum wage nutrition”. Take vitamin C, the [...]

Read the full article →

Reduce Your Heart Attack Risk 50% with Water

Thumbnail image for Reduce Your Heart Attack Risk 50% with Water

A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that guys who drank five or more glasses of water had only a 46% chance of having a fatal heart attack, and women had only 59% risk, compared to people who drank two or less glasses of water daily. It gets even better (or worse, depending [...]

Read the full article →

Coffee Could Reduce Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

A nine-year study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed your daily Starbucks habit could reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes. “There have been conflicting results from previous studies regarding coffee’s effect on chronic disease risk depending on the type of disease,” said Anna Floegel, the study’s lead author. “That is why we [...]

Read the full article →

Low Carb Beats Low Fat for Fat Loss & More

A study that Johns Hopkins researchers presented at a recent American Heart Association meeting showed the more belly fat you lose, the better your arteries can expand, which allows more blood to flow to your heart, brain, and other areas. The six-month study divided 60 men and women into two groups that combined either a [...]

Read the full article →

Daily Habit Increases Heart Disease Risk By 20%

A new study in the journal Circulation found men who consumed a 12-ounce sugar-sweetened drink every day had a 20% higher risk of heart disease compared to men who didn’t drink them. The study tracked primarily Caucasian middle-aged men, all in healthcare professions, for 22 years. Every two years, these participants completed questionnaires that inquired [...]

Read the full article →

The Red Meat Scare: What Do We Make Of It?

Over 100 of you wrote to me to ask my opinion of the latest “Red Meat Will Kill You” scare, a study which was published March 12 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, and gleefully reported by the mainstream media and commented on by just about everyone on both sides of the red meat controversy. [...]

Read the full article →

It’s Not Sexy… But It Works for Weight Loss!

Mention fiber, and you might immediately recall those gigantic tubs of Metamucil your grandma stocked up on at warehouse stores. In other words: not sexy. I don’t need to remind you of fiber’s many benefits, which include reducing inflammation, triglycerides, and cholesterol. But I really get people’s attention when I say fiber is the number-one [...]

Read the full article →

Top 10 Fitness and Nutrition Tips for…1998?

Recently I came across some of my old columns from the 90’s and decided to sample some of them to see what I was thinking back a decade or so ago. I was especially curious to see in what areas my thinking had evolved. I fully expected to slap my hand to my forehead in [...]

Read the full article →

New Cholesterol Guidelines: Utter Madness

Usually I try to write these newsletter articles with a modicum of objectivity and fairness, checking my passion at the gate. But this latest travesty from the Cholesterol Establishment is simply too much to take sitting down. On Nov 11, The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute issued new guidelines on cholesterol. They now advise [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries