Healthy Behaviors

Doctors Should Screen for Body Mass Index, Report Says

Responding to the ongoing obesity epidemic, the prestigious U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) is calling on physicians to screen their patients for body-mass index (BMI) alongside other standard preventive screenings for high blood pressure, heart rate, and lung function, Kaiser Health News reported May 16. Other medical societies, including the American Medical Association and the [...]

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Study: Beating Depression Could Be a Walk in the Park

Reconnecting with nature could help you fight depression, a new study suggests. Nearly a fifth of Americans suffer from depression, anxiety, or other mental illness, studies show. But taking a nature walk helps restore cognitive performance and mood among people with depressive symptoms — an effect not observed during walks in urban environments, according to [...]

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Better Educated People Live Longer, Study Says

A good education may extend your life, HealthDay News reported May 14. While other studies have shown a link between education, better longevity and higher well-being, it has traditionally been hard to separate wealth, family support, and other factors from the benefits of education. However, this new study — involving 1.2 million Swedes — was [...]

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Half Hour of Secondhand Smoke Exposure Harms Heart, Study Says

As little as 30 minutes of secondhand-smoke exposure can hurt your heart and cardiovascular system, a new study says. Healthy nonsmokers who breathed “very low levels of secondhand smoke — the same amount many people and children would encounter out and about in the community” — suffered significant damage to the lining of their blood [...]

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Study Says Exercise Can Prevent Diabetes

Regular, vigorous physical activity can increase your insulin resistance and thus lower your risk of developing diabetes, a new study from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland finds. Men’s Health reported May 13 that the study led by Francesca Amati, M.D., Ph.D., found that the healthy adults who burned the most calories as they worked out [...]

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Meditation is Good for Your Brain

People who meditate for many years seem to enjoy a variety of cognitive benefits, including greater neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to make physiological changes) and more white and dark brain matter, the New York Times reported May 8. Research also has shown that meditation may help lower the risk of death from coronary [...]

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Enforcement of New Sunscreen Label Rules Postponed

Here’s a bummer for the summer: Sunscreen manufacturers will have until December, not June, to clarify sun-protection claims on their products, the Washington Post reported May 11. The new guidelines — which require manufacturers to disclose whether their products protect against both types of ultraviolet rays (UVA and UVB) — will be postponed until December [...]

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Study: Social “Jet Lag” is Killing Your Sleep Schedule, Expanding Your Waistline

Do you love to “sleep in” on the weekends? You may be disrupting your sleep schedule and increasing your risk of obesity, a new study suggests. Just like flying from New York to London can play games with your metabolism, so can going to bed and waking up at different hours on the weekends than [...]

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CDC: Americans Get Too Much Sun Exposure

More than half of adults age 18 to 29 have had a sunburn in the last year, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says. Whites fare worst, with about 65 percent reporting a burn in the last 12 months, Medical News Today reported May 11. By contrast, just 10 [...]

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Babies Can Benefit from Musical Training, Studies Say

Exposing your one-year-old to the joys of music may aid social and cognitive development, a pair of new studies from researchers at McMaster University in Canada say. Infants that participate in interactive music classes with their parents smile sooner, communicate better, and show earlier, more complex brain responses to music than infants that receive no [...]

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