Summertime is prime time for ticks, which are becoming more prevalent each year. A combination of changing land use and warmer winters has greatly expanded the ticks’ habitat and they’re now found in more than half of U.S. counties. As a result, tick-borne Lyme disease has doubled over the last two decades to nearly 500,000 cases annually, earning it the …
Dementia and Alzheimer’s: Updates from a Leading Geriatrician
Senior Moments Or Something More? As Baby Boomers continue the inexorable journey deep into their senior years, preserving cognitive function understandably tops the list of worries. While Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias are seen in just 5% of people over 65, that number jumps to 30% for people age 85 and over. Questions abound: is forgetting a name a sign …
Tips for Safe Summer Fun
Stay Safe with Sunscreen, Sunglasses and Plenty of Water The longer, sunshine filled days of summer are upon us and without a doubt, they are one of life’s unrivaled joys, especially when you protect yourself from the powerful impact of ultraviolet rays. With that in mind, we share our tips for safe summer fun; from choosing and using the right …
What’s Keeping You Up at Night?
Breaking the Cycle of Anxiety, Insomnia and Sleep Anxiety A good night’s sleep does more than refresh and revitalize. It’s essential to your health, so make it a priority to understand what’s keeping you up at night. “Healthy sleep is as important as proper nutrition and regular exercise for our physical and mental well-being,” says Kannan Ramar, MD, sleep medicine physician …
What Does BMI Really Tell Us?
Definitive Diagnostic Tool or Part of a Greater Health Matrix? It’s an easily understood calculation: Body Mass Index, popularly known as BMI, computes an individual’s measure of body fat as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. Levels are defined as Underweight if less than 18.5, Normal weight if between 18.5 and 24.9, Overweight if between 25.0 and …
Pandemic Stress Likely Compounded by Seasonal Affective Disorder
Coping With Sad This Winter As we continue to weather the storm of COVID-19, seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is once again on our radar. More subtle than an arctic blast, SAD is just as real, with just as much potential to have a chilling effect on our mood, productivity and wellness. Similar to last winter, the emotional stress and …
A Novel Approach to Behavior Change
How to Replace Bad Habits with Healthy, Sustainable Behaviors For entrepreneur physician Kyra Bobinet, MD, the typical reasons behind a failed diet served as the impetus for developing a novel approach to behavior change. “I was doing so well. I knew what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, and then I just stopped doing it…and I don’t know …
Staying Well in the New Year A Proactive Guide
In the spirit of starting 2022 with healthy intention, we’ve taken a page from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) latest recommendations, long considered the gold standard for clinical preventive services, and prepared the following proactive guide to staying well in the new year. Back in 1903, Thomas Edison predicted where we were headed: “The doctor of the future …
Color Your World with Every Hue of Fruit and Vegetable
Eating Your Fruits and Veggies May Help Reduce the Risk of Chronic Disease Fill your plate with a vibrant, colorful array of fruits and vegetables for a naturally delicious way to meet your daily requirement of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Plant foods contain thousands of natural compounds called phytonutrients, which may have anti-inflammatory benefits that can help reduce the risk …
Keep it Moving! But Is 10,000 Steps A Day The Right Goal?
Are 12,000 steps better, or will 6,000 work equally well? In the last decade, we’ve all been watching our steps. As we noted in our 2018 newsletter, wearables, pedometers and watches were becoming ubiquitous, tracking every step we made and celebrating the 10,000th one daily. However, as recently reported in Nature, few people are actually reaching it. The average number …