All you runners spending a paycheck on the latest running gear may want to know that mounting evidence suggests barefoot is better. There’s a fascinating review in the latest Scientific American (Observations: Running barefoot is better, researchers find) that reviews the latest medical literature, including a recent article in Nature that analyzed stress patterns of barefoot runners.… Read the rest
Just a couple weeks ago I posted an article discussing the trendiness of vitamin D. Since then, there is even more press about this; last week I reported how sales of vitamin D are jumping. Now, the New York Times also reviews the literature, with a cautionary note (The Miracle of Vitamin D: Sound Science, or Hype?… Read the rest
One of my favorite consumer websites is from ConsumerLab.com; they perform independent testing of the common supplements, herbs and vitamins that most of us use. Consider it the Consumer Reports of supplements. They charge to use the site but they have a free weekly newsletter, which this week had the following survey results of the most common supplements of 2009:
… Read the rest
Fish oil/omega-3 supplements were used by 74.0% of respondents (up from 71.6% in 2008), followed in popularity by multivitamins, which were used by 72% (down from 73.8% in the prior year).
I’m a big fan of those alcohol-based gel hand sanitizers. I’m already a bit of a hypochondriac so I didn’t feel as weird this year when everyone started to use them during the H1N1 pandemic. After all, everyone knows they kill 99.9% of germs.… Read the rest
How much salt do you eat? Most likely a lot more than you think. My readers should (hopefully!) remember my previous discussions on how a high-salt diet can raise blood pressure; now, a large study, just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that if everyone in America consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths.… Read the rest
Here’s another fascinating new study which affirms yet again how important those leafy green veggies are. This time the focus was on smokers and their risks for cancers. This study followed a cohort of smokers and collected data on diet, then they analyzed their DNA for changes in 8 genes that are strongly connected to lung and other cancers.… Read the rest