Archive for July, 2017

Fitness Fashion: Spinning into Rhabdomyolysis

July 21, 2017 — Is this what fitness is all about? Or is it closer to fashion? How does it relate to health? Spinning businesses like Soul Cycle and Peloton are achieving cult status. Devoted followers immerse themselves in demanding sessions led by charismatic instructors. Some of those instructors might compete well with a marine drill sergeant. The advertising […]

Surgery, Suffering, and Money in Obesity and Diabetes

July 20, 2017 — Does gastric bypass surgery save money for patients with obesity and diabetes? That’s the question a new study answers in Obesity this week. Suffering with a chronic disease – at least in the short term – is usually free. So finding savings would indeed be surprising in a two-year study such as this one. This study holds […]

Hurtling Toward 100 Million Americans with Diabetes

July 19, 2017 — America is heading at a breakneck pace toward an awesome milestone – 100 million Americans with diabetes. According to a new CDC report, 30 million have it already. Another 84 million are well on their way. They have prediabetes – elevated blood sugar that makes it very likely for a person to develop full-blown type 2 diabetes. […]

Fitness Trackers Are Dead, Long Live Digital Health

July 18, 2017 — Anyone remember the Apple Newton? Or the Palm Pilot? Maybe you were once addicted to a Blackberry – also known as the crackberry because people just couldn’t put them down. Well, it looks like Fitbit might be on its way to technology oblivion – just like all three of those once hot personal tech innovations. Does […]

The Hype and Hope of Personalized Nutrition

July 18, 2017 — At YWM2017 yesterday, Christopher Gardner took a hard look at the hype and hopes for personalized nutrition. It’s an area of intense scientific interest. But a lot of sciency-sounding personalized nutrition advice is more sizzle than substance, as Gardner explained. If someone wants to sell you high-priced genetic testing to reveal the perfect diet for […]

Longer Telomeres: A Bonus from Gastric Bypass Surgery?

July 17, 2017 — Lose weight and gain telomeres with bariatric surgery. It’s not exactly compelling ad copy, but it might be an important insight into the benefits of bariatric surgery. Researchers from the Geisinger Obesity Research Institute have found longer telomeres in 60% of people three to five years after they had gastric bypass surgery. Telomeres: An Important […]

Jessamyn Stanley Teaches Us About Loving Every Body

July 16, 2017 — Jessamyn Stanley, author of the Every Body Yoga, deals gracefully with passive aggressive trolls who ask, “what about your health?” What about your health? Why are you asking such an intimate question? I can google. I know about heart disease and diabetes. And so Stanley has more than 300,000 devoted Instagram followers and a book […]

Serving Mac and Cheese and Phthalates

July 15, 2017 — Mac and cheese sits near the top of the chart for America’s favorite comfort foods. But here’s a clearly discomforting thought. Yesterday, on National Mac and Cheese Day, we learned that those convenient dinners in a box have alarming levels of endocrine disrupting chemicals in them. Specifically, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) reports […]

Will Improving Your Diet a Little Bit Make You Live Longer?

July 14, 2017 — The New England Journal of Medicine has an interesting new study on the association between diet quality and the risk of death. So inevitably, it’s time for the headlines to give us all a pep talk about how a healthier diet will make us all live longer. “Even Modest Changes to Diet Can Reduce the […]

Rich and Poor in Opportunities to Walk

July 13, 2017 — Here’s a fascinating new way to look at health disparities. How much disparity does a place have in walking? Does everyone take many steps per day? Or do some take a lot while others take very few? A new study in Nature finds that disparities in opportunities to walk predict higher obesity rates.  Big Data […]