A brutal flu season has had people reaching for relief in their medicine cabinet, but a new study warns that overdosing on acetaminophen (Tylenol) is more common when bugs and viruses are circulating. It turns out that the odds of taking more than the recommended 4 grams a day jumps 24 percent during these months,… read on >
While a smoothie can be a nutritious alternative to a regular meal, many smoothies are loaded with sugar and lack sufficient protein. The American Council on Exercise suggests how to make a smoothie that’s more nutritious: Start with a heaping portion of romaine, chard, kale, parsley, mint or any other green leafy vegetable. Add fruit… read on >
Childhood obesity is a problem that often follows kids into adulthood, exposing them to serious health threats later in life. Here’s how to get — or keep — your child’s weight in a healthy range. First, eating as a family is key to preventing weight gain in kids. Positive family interaction has been listed in… read on >
If you’ve been struggling with your weight for some time, you might be wondering if bariatric surgery is the answer. This surgery, which involves reducing the size of your stomach to limit how much food you can take in, isn’t for moderate weight loss. You need to be at least 100 pounds overweight with a… read on >
Is your family struggling with overweight or obesity? To lose weight, take a team approach. Studies show that when overweight parents shed pounds, so do their overweight kids. Parents hold the keys to positive behaviors that encourage a healthy weight, from doing the food shopping and cooking to getting kids involved in sports and other… read on >
If your parents pushed you to diet as a teen, chances are you will do the same to your own children. New research suggests that when parents focus on a teen’s diet, it creates an unhealthy cycle that can harm generations to come. “Adolescents who received encouragement to diet from their parents were more likely… read on >
Your teeth are incredibly strong, and with the proper care and regular dental visits, you can keep them that way. The American Dental Association offers these “tooth truths”: Tooth enamel, which is 96 percent mineral, is the hardest substance in the body. Your teeth can exert an average of 200 pounds of pressure when you… read on >
Temporarily boosting the dose of inhaled steroids may not do much to reduce the frequency of severe asthma flare-ups in children, according to two new studies. Short-term increases in inhaled steroids might even be tied to slightly slowed growth in kids, one of the studies suggested. Asthma flare-ups in children are common and many doctors… read on >
What’s the truth about the herbal drug kratom? Is it a potentially dangerous opioid that needs to be tightly regulated, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has argued in recent months? Or is it a misunderstood natural product that provides people in pain an alternative to opioids, a point of view asserted by a… read on >
Could the calcium supplement you take to help your bones be harming your colon? That’s the suggestion from a new study that finds a link between the daily supplement and an increased risk for polyps in the colon. Polyps are not cancerous, but some can eventually turn into cancer if they’re not removed. Further research… read on >
