There are five supplements I think every adult should take. The first one is a whole-food based multivitamin. A recent article in Reader’s Digest called vitamins a scam and said that taking them is a waste of money. It cited a study of 160,000 mid-life women that showed no difference in health with respect to the big diseases like cancer, heart disease and stroke, from taking a multivitamin. But as with all studies, you need to dig deeper—in this case because not all vitamins are created equal. (I am always suspect when a magazine whose advertising is largely from pharmaceutical [Read More]

In a previous article, we talked about the three different kinds of fat: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. The reality is, all fats contain combinations of each of these, but fats are classified based on which type of fat is predominant. And your body needs all three of these types of fat for healthy functioning. But in today’s world, we are eating too many omega 6 fatty acids and not enough omega 3s. So instead of the 1:1 balance our body desires, the ratio can be more like 20 or even 50:1 omega 6 to omega 3. Since we are so [Read More]

There are different types of exercise and there are various reasons why they are all important for your fitness and health. We know exercise matters for weight management, but it is also a critical component to heart health, managing hormones and blood sugar levels, improving immune function, and preventing cancer. Now a new study shows that exercise is a critical component of cancer recovery as well. Cancer survivors were given individually tailored exercise plans including cardiovascular, endurance, strength and flexibility training. After 12 weeks, the researchers discovered that a large portion of the T cells associated with the cancer were [Read More]

A friend of mine called me recently and said she’d read an article about a really important test to assess your wellness and she was concerned because she had gone through her records and her doctor had never given her that test. She wondered if she should demand it or change doctors or what she should do. When she told me the article was about homocysteine, I knew she had read that high levels of homocysteine in the blood are reliable risk factors for heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, neurological conditions such as Alzheiner’s and Parkinson’s, thyroid concerns, infertility, depression, [Read More]

I want to write about an issue that doesn’t directly affect your health, but can impact your life: 911 emergency calls. As an indoor cycling instructor, I need to keep my CPR certification up to date. The last time I renewed my certification, the instructor was a paramedic in a local town here in Massachusetts. During the course, he went into a long explanation of why you should always call 911 from a landline if at all possible, and not your cell phone. Obviously, if you are out in the middle of nowhere, your cell phone is all you have [Read More]