AAHH: updates and questions answered

 Here we are again, ready to extol the virtues of the Mediterranean diet.  In our last post, we shared some new information about how a pregnant mother's food choices impact that child's growth in childhood and risk of obesity.  Now we know that following that time-honored eating tradition is not only good for mothers, but also good for developing babies in the womb!  But today we will travel to the other end of the life spectrum and share good news about an issue that is of crucial importance to older men (and the grandchildren who love them!) In a study published just last month, in the prestigious journal Cancer, from the equally prestigious M.D. Anderson Cancer Center,  ( Cancer . 2021 Mar 1; 127(5):720-728. doi:10.1002/cncr.33182) we find new data on how the Mediterranean diet slows the progression of prostate cancer.  First, you should know that nearly half of men who are newly diagnosed with prostate cancer are found to be eligible for "active surve...

I have lost track of the number of times I have recommended that one of my patients follow a traditional Mediterranean diet, and lost track of all the reasons I may have said that.  But after all that, it's great to know there is still more to learn about this gift that has been passed down to us over generations and oceans.  For the next three blog posts, I will give a short summary of some things you may not have known, in addition to some food ideas you can cook up in your own kitchen!  Let's talk about food! Did you know... ... that a pregnant mom's food choices affect a child's growth and risk of obesity later in life? Absolutely.  Researchers from Harvard tracked 1459 mother-child pairs for up to 18 years after they had collected data on mom's food choices in pregnancy.  It turns out that when pregnant moms eat a diet that is pro-inflammatory and less closely adheres to a traditional Mediterranean diet pattern, children born of those pregnancies are more l...

Question: should you take vitamin D? Answer: yes. End of blog. Let me explain...   Here's what I think you need to know about vitamin D, not too little, not too much, just right.  Some years ago, when the data began to emerge on how important vitamin D was to human health, I started doing blood tests on teenagers in my practice.  But I stopped pretty quickly.  Almost everyone was deficient.  How can that be?  These are "normal" young people.  First reason: we don't spend enough time in the sun.  Adults working indoors, kids in schools, in fact anyone living north of a latitude that roughly passes through Atlanta, GA, cannot get enough sunlight exposure year round to avoid vitamin D deficiency.  Sunlight is the very best way to make vitamin D, because the skin converts other steroid compounds in the body to vitamin D on exposure to the UV rays in sunlight.   Second reason: it's hard to get vitamin D from foods. Without added supplementati...

     Have you had some trouble sleeping?  Yes, I have had more of that in the past year than ever, I think. In addition to the whole precarious state of the world in 2020 and moving into 2021, our family has had some significant stressors in the past year.  There have been nights when troubled thoughts kept me awake for sure, but that's actually pretty uncommon for me.  I personally am really grateful for that, as many do not sleep that easily.        If you spend more than a rare night with sleep trouble, here are some suggestions, based on real-life interactions with patients in my practice.       First, it may be a good idea to mention it to your primary care doctor.  There are some medical conditions associated with poor sleep, such as obstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or other painful conditions that awake you from sleep. Even if it is your sleep partner that snores loudly enough to keep ...

You know I love to talk about good food and good health.  Because if anything, I've learned over the past 20 years that what we eat has more bearing on our long term health, happiness, and well-being than just about anything.   So, I was super-excited this week to see an article come across my email feed, all about another reason to enjoy fish!  Specifically oily fish.  Let's define what that means.  Fish, across the board, is a healthy protein source, low in saturated fats.  Much better for you, in general, than a steady diet of beef for example.  But fish that are "oily" have even more reasons to start planning your menu. Most ocean dwelling whitefish, by contrast, live at or near the ocean floor; while most oily fish spend their time in the upper ocean water.  Salmon for example, obtain their high concentration of omega 3 oils by eating natural sources of omega 3 oils from the ocean, including krill, plankton, and small shellfish. This is ...

                                                                                                                                                                   Photo by Jill Wellington from Pexels January 30, 2021 Do you remember feeling that alive? Energy that felt it would go on forever?  Sleep that was like floating on a cloud? Awaking hopeful and ready for the day? Among the many things we have lost in the last year, maybe you have lost some of those things.  Or maybe you had begun to los...

  It’s 2021! Exhausted already?   Do you remember a New Year’s Day some years ago that felt full of possibility, determination, resilience and hope that things just might be starting out right? That this just might be “your year!?” After the way this year has started, that sort of start to a year seems pretty remote. But I confess again that I am no fortune teller, my crystal ball is clouded, and the rest of this year is impossible to predict. Who knows? We could be in way better shape this time next year. Regardless o...