AAHH: updates and questions answered

  I wonder how you are feeling about Christmas?   The song says, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year,” but it’s widely known that Christmas stress is real and it can even make you sick!   Instead of Christmas cheer, many people are reminded of family or friends they have lost either by death or estrangement, or reminded of financial stresses triggered by so many false expectations that our happiness depends on the latest expensive whatchamacallit. Whatever the reasons, we need a way out of our tendency to simmer in our own disappointments and then pretend that everything is happy. This is exactly where cultivating skills of mindfulness and meditation are a game-changer.   If you are sick and tired of listening to your own stream of unwanted thoughts and negative self-talk, this is tailor-made for you. What is mindfulness anyway? And what's it good for? Here’s some background, then I’ll share some practical tips. Measurable improvements in a person’s wel...

On a recent trail hike in the woods, Gail and I came across a tree that had just recently fallen.   The leaves were still green, but the entire trunk, roots and all, were flat on the ground. No other nearby trees had any sign of damage.   How could that be?   It’s likely that there was some disease or weakness deep in the tree, in the inner trunk or roots, so that the beautiful tree fell in some storm that left the others undisturbed. In his book, Healthy Aging , Andrew Weil, MD, laments that in much of what passes for “anti-aging medicine” today is an emphasis on the appearance of youth.   Plastic surgery, Botox, skin peels, muscle building supplements are big business. Dr. Weil goes on to fill the book with actionable ideas for healthy aging and the “compression of morbidity.”   What is that? Compression of morbidity is the concept of staying healthy and active until a short time before death in old age, rather than the gradual decline over decades that is m...

Physical Fitness: less heart disease, less cancer, but how do we sustain it?    Let's start thinking about this together with some shared recollections. Some of my favorite childhood and young adult memories have to do with being physically active, and I wonder if yours are too. As young people, we took delight in discovering what our bodies can do as we grow.  Think of the look of amazed delight on the face of a toddler learning how to walk... or run!  Recall what it felt like to be 6 years old and running in exuberant circles in the grass on a summer evening. Maybe you enjoyed throwing a ball, catching a Frisbee, playing table-tennis, dancing, gymnastics, or a team sport. There was a sense of pride and satisfaction even with the hard breathing and the sweat, or even a bruise or a scrape from rough competition. It is natural for young humans (and other animals too!) to stretch and test the limits of our bodies and to enjoy activity.  I think that recalling tha...

  Maybe we'll start this one with a not-so guilty pleasure, now that you know I'm going to say good things about coffee!  If you're like me, it's not hard at all to bring to mind the intense aroma of coffee.  Grinding coffee, brewing coffee, the steamy delicious smell wafting from the top of your favorite mug, or the warm taste of the first cup in the morning... take your time, close your eyes if you wish and imagine. And now, here are some facts that maybe you didn't know, about what a good choice this is as your beverage! A 2017 article in the British Medical Journal by Poole et al. reviewed the findings from well over 200 studies that had analyzed the relationship between coffee intake and health outcomes. After all the details were sorted out, they concluded that on balance, drinking coffee was more likely to be associated with health benefit than harm to health, over a wide range of health conditions that had been studied.  The comparison held up when looking a...

  How do I make sense of all the talk about COVID19 vaccines? First, it's important for you to understand how I think about vaccines in general.  My primary specialty is pediatrics and adolescent medicine, since 1986.  Following my training years, I immediately spent a year studying at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene (now the Bloomberg School of Public Health) in Baltimore. My focus there was on international child and adolescent health, disease prevention on a population level, and how to improve health quality of life around the world. My own personal history of education and medical practice forms the foundation for how I think about vaccines.  A number I will never forget may surprise you. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, an average of 2.6 million children were dying of measles every year. Every year. 2.6 million. Widespread use of this safe and effective vaccine was responsible for saving millions of lives, so that betwee...

Today is a great day to be talking about how our relationship with food shapes our lives.   As I am writing this, I can look out the window to a springtime garden, and I am hopeful that we will see fresh vegetables in our kitchen soon from our own back yard!  Growing our own food has deep family roots for me.  As a child, I lived next door to my grandparents, who kept a large vegetable garden that I remember vividly to this day.  My mother and grandmother both canned and put away produce for the family to have plenty of vegetables in the winter months. Gail and I have grown vegetables almost every year since we were newlyweds. We enjoy cooking and eating good food, so it is once again a real pleasure to see new scientific data published on its value! In the February issue of the journal Nutrients, a group of dedicated researchers shared findings on how food impacts the onset (or not) of dementia.  The study population was in Spain, and they followed over ...

 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...