Posts Tagged ‘prevention’

How Much Exercise to Prevent Weight Gain?

January 11, 2021 — In the relationship between exercise and weight, one article of faith has held up for years. Exercise is a valuable tool for preventing weight gain. Though you can’t outrun a bad diet, experts are quite clear that exercise helps to maintain a lower weight. However, a new randomized study in Obesity asks a key question. […]

Five Things We Hope for in This New Year

January 1, 2021 — In a world of divisions, one sentiment seems to unite us: joy in being done with 2020. Thus we say that we look to this new year with a measure of hope for better days ahead. Even for a stern realist, hope is important. Monica Hesse explains: I am not a superstitious person and I […]

2020 Concept of the Year: Immunity

December 28, 2020 — Merriam-Webster tells us that the word of the year is pandemic. (That was easy.) Oxford says that one word is not enough for this year, so the Oxford lexicographers have a produced a report to explore the many words and trends that define this weird year. But our approach to this question is simple. We […]

Vitamin D: Evidence, Speculation, and COVID-19

December 20, 2020 — As we struggle with this pandemic, cheap answers have great appeal. Some are absurd, like bleach for purposes other than cleaning. Others present a puzzle with many dimensions to resolve. Such is the case of vitamin D. This week three authoritative health groups in England sorted through all the evidence on vitamin D and COVID-19. […]

Proving an Important Point with a Lousy Study

June 24, 2020 — “In your heart, you know he’s right.” That political tagline was a loser in 1964 and it ranks as one of ten worst of all time. But it’s even worse if such thinking is applied to science. A study seems to prove an important point at a critical moment. So it’s rushed into publication. Then […]

Today’s Nonsense: Diet and Exercise to Fight COVID-19

April 10, 2020 — Prescriptions for diet and exercise have worked so well for preventing obesity that some folks are selling them for fighting COVID-19. Headlines suggesting this strategy are popping up too often in lifestyle and health reporting. For example, the Wicked Local News in Beverly, Massachusetts, tells us: While not much is known yet about fighting COVID-19, […]

Not Me! What’s the Point of Knowing Our Risks?

March 24, 2020 — Risk is an abstraction. It’s invisible. So people have a tough time wrapping their heads around questions of risk. How immediate is the risk? Is it big? Does it affect me? Am I putting others in danger? These are just a few of the questions that shape how we think about knowing our risks. As […]

The Importance of Distinguishing Science from Ideology

March 14, 2020 — Must everything be tribal and ideological? We think not. Yet avoiding this tendency is certainly hard for humans such as ourselves. Facing the health threat of COVID-19, we see a prime example of the importance of distinguishing science from ideology. It’s handwashing. The Most Effective Way to Prevent Transmission This is a matter scientific fact. […]

Does Medicare Care About Preventing Diabetes?

October 23, 2019 — We have an effective treatment for preventing diabetes. It cuts the risk by 60 percent in people with prediabetes. For every person on Medicare, it saves $2,650. In just 15 months. But Medicare can’t figure out how to make it available to the people who need it. This is the sad story of implementing the […]

What? A Low-Fat Diet Prevents Breast Cancer?

May 19, 2019 — Low-fat diets are back in the news this week. An impressive and important randomized, controlled clinical trial started way back in 1993 to test the possibility that a low-fat diet might reduce the risk of breast cancer in women after menopause. Needless to say, a lot has changed in 26 years since then. Back then, […]