Staying Healthy Archive

Mind-body medicine is providing new models for wellness and therapy by combining conventional and complementary approaches to treatment. At this seminar, a panel of Harvard Medical School faculty will discuss this quickly developing approach that may help shape the future of medicine.

Each spring, Harvard Medical School's Office of Communications and External Relations organizes a series of four free "mini-med school" classes for the general public in the heart of Boston's Longwood Medical Area. At the end of the seminar series, participants who attend three out of the four sessions receive a certificate of completion. Topics are selected for their appeal to a lay audience and have included the human genome, nutrition, sleep dynamics and health care access. Faculty from Harvard Medical School and its affiliate hospitals volunteer their time to present these lectures to the community.

Obesity among children and adults dramatically increases the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. What are the contributing factors that lead to being overweight? In this seminar, Harvard Medical School doctors and researchers will address the stigma that surrounds obesity and discuss concrete methods, including changes to sleep and diet, that could help scale back this growing problem.

Each spring, Harvard Medical School's Office of Communications and External Relations organizes a series of four free "mini-med school" classes for the general public in the heart of Boston's Longwood Medical Area. At the end of the seminar series, participants who attend three out of the four sessions receive a certificate of completion. Topics are selected for their appeal to a lay audience and have included the human genome, nutrition, sleep dynamics and health care access. Faculty from Harvard Medical School and its affiliate hospitals volunteer their time to present these lectures to the community.

Say goodbye to foods high in refined carbohydrates, sodium, and added sugars.

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They say the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. And if you're looking to eat a healthier diet, the first few steps should include a stroll over to the pantry.

Inside, you may find staples of the standard American diet: foods in boxes, bags, cans, and jars, brimming with refined grains, salt, added sugars, or saturated fat.

Benefits such as mental stimulation and social engagement are associated with staving off chronic disease.

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Punching a time clock is still part of the regular routine for an increasing number of older adults. They're staying employed or going back to work, even though they're beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.

"For well over 100 years, men had been retiring at earlier and earlier ages. Something shifted in the 1990s, and they began working longer. The story for women is different. They weren't always in the labor force. But now we see employment rates rising for women at every age," says Nicole Maestas, an associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. She studies the economics of aging, health, and disability.

News briefs

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Are you an apple or a pear? Older adults who carry their weight around their middle (in an apple shape) may have a higher risk for falls than people who carry their weight around their hips (in a pear shape), according to a study published online Feb. 9, 2018, by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. An apple shape is known as central obesity. When researchers looked at the two-year fall histories of about 3,400 people ages 65 or older, it turned out that people with central obesity were 37% more likely to fall than people who didn't have central obesity. Scientists speculate that the increased risk was the result of a higher center of gravity for the people with central obesity. Also noteworthy: some people had a normal body mass index (a measure that takes into account both your height and weight), even though they also had central obesity (a big belly). The study was only observational and doesn't prove that central obesity causes falls. But we already know that a large waist is associated with a higher risk for developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Men should aim for a waist circumference less than 40 inches, and women should aim for less than 35 inches.

News briefs

Baby boomers are falling short in getting hepatitis C screenings. In 2012, the CDC urged the entire generation of people born from 1945 to 1965 to get this simple blood test, noting that baby boomers are five times more likely to have the virus than other adults. But a study published online March 27, 2018, by the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention found that only about 13% of baby boomers had been tested by 2015, up just one percentage point from 2013. The information came from national government health surveys. Hepatitis C can lead to cirrhosis, liver damage, liver cancer, and liver failure. Treatments are now available that can cure hepatitis C, if it's caught early enough. Baby boomers are believed typically to have become infected in the 1960s through the 1980s, when transmission of hepatitis C was highest. People at highest risk are those who have used intravenous drugs, had more than one sex partner, or received a blood transfusion before 1992, when the blood test for hepatitis C was first available.

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While the low-carb diet trend is still going strong, experts suggest you pay more attention to quality, not quantity.

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Over the years, carbohydrates have become nutritional villains. It seems everywhere you look, people advise you to watch carbs, cut carbs, or go low-carb. But you need carbs — and more than you may think.

Dietary carbs provide the body's primary energy source, glucose, which fuels everything you do, from breathing to thinking to running.

How can you protect yourself from air pollution?

Every day, you inhale thousands of gallons of air — mostly nitrogen, oxygen, and a smattering of other gases. But that air also may contain tiny particles spewed from power plants, factories, and vehicles — commonly known as air pollution.

"Air pollution" refers to particulate matter (PM), the mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke, are large or dark enough to see, while others are microscopic in size. Most studies on air pollution focus on PM2.5, which are inhalable particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter.

Remember to take care of your hearing, like any other aspect of your health.

When you plan your next series of maintenance health tests, don't forget your ears. An ear and hearing exam is not something that needs to be done every year, but you should be aware of changes that could signal serious problems.

"At the very least, a baseline evaluation can help, so you can monitor changes if your hearing declines," says Dr. Stephen W. Hill, an audiologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye & Ear.

In the journals

Choosing better sources of fat can go a long way toward preventing heart disease, according to research recently presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention — Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2018.

The research team analyzed data from 63,412 women from the Nurses' Health Study and 29,966 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Both studies used detailed food-frequency questionnaires administered every four years to evaluate the participants' diets. During an average 22 years of follow-up, there were 20,672 deaths among participants — 4,588 of them from heart disease.