Daily Health Tips: Trusted Medical Information, Health Tips and Advices

In Small Study, Harvard Researchers Find Kudzu Extract Reduces Drinking  An extract from the Chinese herb kudzu may help drinkers cut down on drinking, according to a new pilot study. "It didn't stop the drinking," says researcher David M. Penetar, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "They still drank, but they drank less." He studied the extract puerarin. It is one of the substances known as isoflavones found in kudzu. The study is published in  Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Drinking Problems More remedies are needed to help drinkers who overdo it cut down, Penetar says. The medications approved for treating alcohol abuse and dependence don't work for everyone, he says. About 1 in 6 U.S. adults binge drinks, according to a CDC report. Experts disagree on the definition of binge drinking. According to the CDC, binge drinking is having four or more drinks on one occasion for a woman and five or more for a m...

Carrying a few extra pounds? They could be making your cholesterol worse. Excess weight tends to increase your harmful LDL cholesterol levels, and one recent study linked a high ratio of body fat with higher levels of LDL. Three Key Measurements Do you use a bathroom scale to check your weight? Pounds aren't the only way to gauge health. Here are other, more accurate ways: BMI:  You can get an estimate of your body fat based on calculations of your height and weight. Waist circumference:  Anything more than 40 inches for men or 35 inches for women is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. To measure your waist circumference, find the area between your lowest rib and the top of your hipbone. Place a measuring tape on bare skin and wrap it around the narrowest part. The tape should be snug, but not constricting. Waist-to-hip ratio:  This measurement takes into account the proportions of your body by comparing your waist and hip circumferences....

You probably run across some of these studies, too; the major ones get a lot of media attention. That's why I actually prefer sifting through smaller, more obscure periodicals, hunting for research no one else is reporting . For example, over the past week I've learned: You can lose weight by paying for groceries with cash; turns out, you're more likely to buy unhealthy foods if you pay with a credit card. Taking a vitamin D supplement fortifies your muscles, making them less prone to injury. Flirting at work is a hidden sign that your job isn't right for you. Google is making us forgetful, because we're less likely to try to remember information that we know is readily accessible. Who knew, right? Here are nine more fascinating strange-but-true study findings we've run across over the past few years. Live Longer by Changing Your Name People with "positive" initials—ones that spell out things like J.O.Y. or W.O.W.—live nearly...

Common Crop Pesticide Chlorpyrifos May Be Linked With Structural Changes in Developing Brain, Experts Find Prenatal exposure to a pesticide used on many crops may be linked with abnormal changes in a child's developing brain, scientists report. Compared to children with low prenatal exposure, those with high exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos had abnormalities in the cortex (the outer area of the brain), says Virginia Rauh, ScD, professor and deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. The cortex helps govern intelligence, personality, muscle movement, and other tasks. "In areas of the cortex, we detected both enlarged and reduced volumes that were significantly different from the normal brain," she tells WebMD. "This suggests the process of normal brain development has been disturbed in some way." The study is published in  Proceedings of the National Ac...

New health tips are a dime a dozen, right ? Well, maybe in some places that is true. Here we are going to talk about fifteen health tips to implement today to your life and prove that they work. The first is to brush your teeth daily . Gum disease not only can cause you to lose your teeth, it can make you have heart problems. Consider this: scientists have confirmed that gum disease likely causes destructive bacteria to flood the blood system. Limit this problem by brushing your teeth often. Another tip to use today is to cut back on processed sugar . That means most all soft drinks. They are loaded with it. Why cut back on this ingredient ? Large levels of sugar causes quick and damaging levels of insulin to be released into the blood. Your pancreas makes the insulin. If it has to work overtime and you already have a terrible diet your pancrease can become exhausted. When your pancreas becomes exhausted and can not make enough insulin to counteract the level of sugar i...

From exotic juices to cans of cocktail peanuts, more and more edibles in the supermarket are being dubbed "antiaging" by some marketer or media pundit. The real deal about munchies that keep you youthful? They come from the earth, not a vacuum pack. We're not the only ones who are saying that. Take a look at what the longest-lived people in the world are eating (if you know us, this list will look familiar, but with a few twists). Then, put their favorites on your own table. Costa Rica: Beans for Breakfast Residents of Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula are four times more likely than most North Americans to live past age 90. One reason may be dishes like  gallo pinto , a tasty mix of black beans and rice flavored with onion, red peppers, garlic, olive oil, cilantro, and a salsa lizano -- a condiment a little like Worcestershire sauce. The Oz part of this team learned on a trip to Nicoya that big breakfasts that begin with beans rule there. But don't limit yourself; ...

Whatever you put in your pan for dinner tonight, make sure you add a few squeezes of this: lemon juice. A new study shows that marinating meats in lemon juice -- or vinegar -- can help greatly reduce the production of harmful compounds linked to aging and chronic disease. Cooking Compounds All foods -- but especially ones derived from animals -- contain varying levels of compounds called advanced glycation end products (AGEs). These compounds are known to cause inflammation and may open the door to faster aging. Cooking -- especially high-heat methods -- increases formation of AGEs. But now new research suggests that marinating foods in an acidic, low-pH liquid -- like lemon juice or vinegar -- may help slow that formation down significantly. AGEs in beef were cut in half after marinating for an hour -- but shorter amounts of time may help, too. How AGEs Age Meats and full-fat cheeses contain the most AGEs, followed by pork, fish, and eggs -- although even fruit, vegetable...

Self-Help for Headaches Next time you get a nagging headache, try a little fingertip therapy. You might feel better more quickly. Your temporalis muscle:  With your index and middle fingers, apply pressure to your temporalis muscle. It's that tender spot where you feel a muscle move when you clench your teeth. Behind your ears:  Using your thumbs, massage in a circular motion the spots just underneath the large bones behind your ears. Between your eyes:  With your middle finger and thumb, gently pinch the skin just above your nose and press upward so you feel the pressure around your eyebrows. The web of your hand:  Use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the fleshy pad of skin between the thumb and index finger on your opposite hand. Here are three more quick ways to destress your head. Stress isn't  all  bad. Short-term, it can help you meet a deadline, turn a double play, or keep your bumper from getting crumpled. But when stress lingers like wee...

Blood Test Looks for Type of Cell That Breaks Away From Artery Walls A new blood test could one day give doctors a critical head start on heart attacks, a small new study suggests. The test looks for cells that normally line the insides of blood vessels. When those cells, called endothelial cells, start to build up in the blood, researchers say they may be an early indicator of trouble. "When they start to leak and slough off into the blood, that's a really bad sign. They do that over the course of a few days to a couple of weeks before a heart attack occurs," says researcher Eric J. Topol, MD, a professor of genomics and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif. "As they continue to slough off, they basically create a crack [in an artery wall]. A blood clot forms to seal the crack. That's what causes a heart attack," Topol says. Identifying Vulnerable Plaques In recent years, doctors have developed a new understanding o...

Feel like your life has done a number on your fun factor? You're not alone. Deadlines, bills, and crazy-busy schedules keep most of us from cutting loose and getting silly. All work and no play isn't just dull. It negates something that's hardwired into the human psyche, say "play experts." So we're giving you an assignment: Carve out some time for playtime. Find something that makes you feel like you're floating free, happy, and totally absorbed in your own play land. Here are some ways that a busy grown-up can cut loose, play, and even learn something new along the way. Find your inner artist.  Haul out your water-color set, old sewing machine, or woodworking tools. Feeling musical? Dust off your old clarinet, take a guitar class, or join a band. As long as you're having a good time with no high-pressure expectations, it's play.  Flex your green thumb.  Gardening doesn't just produce beautiful flowers and produce, it can also be a relaxing ...