AS WE APPROACH YEAR’S END, I WANT TO REFLECT on the pieces my readers have preferred over the years. Today, I offer “5 Top Health Stories.”
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ― Gilda Radner
Let’s get to my top 5 health-related articles.
1. You Shift Gears at 3 Ages
Blood levels of proteins reflect the starting, stopping, and changing biological processes associated with aging.
We make significant changes at three ages. Can you guess which ones?
Rapid changes in specific protein levels happen in a seemingly coordinated way. We experience the alterations at ages 34, 60, and 78.
2. How Much Do You Have to Run to Improve Health?
The results of a 2019 Australian study surprised me.
This study suggested that if more folks took up running — and wouldn’t have to run far or fast — we would see substantial population health improvements.
Researchers from Australia analyzed fourteen studies (including over two hundred and thirty-two thousand subjects.
They tracked subjects’ health for between 5.5 and 35 years. During the study observation period, nearly twenty-six thousand participants died. Here is what the researchers found:
Any running amount was linked to a lower risk of death by almost a third (a relative thirty percent) and a roughly quarter (twenty-three percent) reduction in the risk of death from cancer.
Even as little as fifty minutes of running once a week at a pace slower than six miles per hour appeared protective.
http://How Much Do You Have to Run to Improve Health? The answer may surprise you.
3. Three Pro Tips to Drop Your Cancer Risk
As someone who helps individuals with cancer, I am always looking for ways to reduce risk.
For my patients, for my friends, for my colleagues, and for myself.
In this brief piece, I focus on the following risk-reducing maneuvers:
- Physical activity
- Sleep
- Diet
3 Pro Tips to Drop Your Cancer Risk – medium.com.
4. I’m Checking My Lp(a) Blood Levels. Should You?
This essay had a very wide readership.
As is the case for much of my writing, I learned much as I researched for the piece.
I ended with this provocative assertion from The People’s Pharmacy:
“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I suspect that cardiologists have rarely tested for Lp(a) because they don’t think they have a drug that will lower it.”
But, if I had an elevated Lp(a), it would prompt me to be even more aggressive in my use of lifestyle maneuvers to lower other risk factors for heart attack or stroke.
I may be unable to change my lipoprotein (a), but I can change my blood pressure and other risk factors.
I’m Checking My Lp(a) Blood Levels. Should You?
5. Rethinking Blood Pressure
For this essay, I ask this question: Is your blood pressure normal? Are you sure?
Researchers are moving the bar on what constitutes an “ideal” blood pressure.
I explore a study suggesting that as blood pressure rises above 90 mm, we risk damaging our heart’s blood vessels (coronary arteries). But I also address these questions about blood pressure:
- How often should you check your blood pressure?
- What time of day is best?
- Should you immediately repeat the measurement?
- What substances should you avoid for 30 minutes before checking?
Rethinking Blood Pressure
IS YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE NORMAL? Are you sure?
I hope you join me in exploring health in 2024. I feel genuinely privileged to be a part of this community.
Moreover, my readers teach me so much. About science, caring, grammar, and more.
You make me a better, more careful writer. And keep me from drifting away from evidence-based observations. Thank you.
Do you have any resolutions for 2024?
Thank you for reading “5 Top Health Stories.”
