So — my friends and I are sitting around the local coffee house, sharing a cuppa java and chuckling over the escapades of Amanda, our perpetual prankster. I take a gander across the table at Amanda’s cup and realize there is no ebony liquid in it. Instead, she’s delicately sipping green tea. Another of Amanda’s … Read more
This article was originally published on this website in 2014. Updated for 2018. One in three of us—58 million Americans – has high blood pressure. In fact, say experts, there’s a 90% chance you’ll develop hypertension in your lifetime. The good news: Dropping a few pounds and exercising are tried-and-true ways to prevent and even … Read more
I’ve been a yoga teacher for more than 30 years. I’ve taught yoga breathing techniques to hundreds of students. I know the importance of the breath for health. But the teacher can always be taught. In this case, Dr. Andrew Weil showed me a new/old breathing technique that is a powerful health enhancer, stress reducer … Read more
Heart disease is the Number 1 killer of men and women in the Western world. Most people think that heart disease is male territory, but nothing could be further from the truth. Heart disease kills more than 400,000 women a year. One in every three female deaths is from heart disease. That’s ten times the … Read more
This article originally appeared on this blog on July 20, 2009. It has been updated for 2018. Another family member falls to the evil of smoking… Nearly nine years ago, my Dad died of the terrible results of a lifetime of smoking. On Tuesday, I lost my 58-year old sister, Julie to the same evil. … Read more
I know, I just wrote about some of the health benefits of drinking coffee a few months back, but there is new research that is just too exciting to miss. Long life: Coffee increases lifespan. I think it is fair and reasonable to make this unequivocal statement based on a recently released National Cancer Institute … Read more
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a silent killer. Millions of Americans have it and don’t know they have it, so they don’t treat it, placing themselves at risk for heart attacks and strokes, the leading cause of death in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 67 million … Read more
It’s a story we hear nearly every day: a man in his mid-fifties develops chest pain and shortness of breath. A visit to his doctor leads to an electrocardiogram (EKG), then an exercise stress test, perhaps later a visit to a cardiologist, more tests, and finally a diagnosis: blocked coronary arteries that require arterial stents … Read more
If you listen to Big Pharma’s brainwashing campaign, statin drugs are the best thing since sliced bread. Everybody ought to pop them daily, just because…. Because WHAT? Well, Big Pharma tells us, we need to keep our cholesterol levels low so we don’t have clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes. OK. Nobody wants these, but, … Read more
Two recent studies confirm that those who eat the most chocolate have lower blood pressure and lower risk of heart disease and stroke.