Staying Healthy Archive

Stay ahead of foot problems by inspecting your feet regularly, keeping them flexible, and wearing the right shoes.

Feet are the unsung heroes of mobility, and it's crucial to keep them healthy. Even minor problems with your feet — such as an ingrown toenail or a small cut — can leave you sidelined. "Breaches of the skin can quickly become problems, whether it's a scrape, ulcer, or blister that gets contaminated or becomes infected," says Dr. Christopher DiGiovanni, chief of foot and ankle surgery at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Be proactive, and care for your feet the way you'd maintain any valuable equipment you rely on for mobility. Here are seven ideas to help.

Sports, walking, and stair climbing may boost balance and keep a stumble from turning into a bad fall.

When you want to improve your balance and reduce the risk of falls, you might turn to a physical therapist for an evaluation and special exercises. But sometimes other types of physical activity can do the job. "People are surprised at how adding just a little extra activity can make a big difference with their balance," says Joy Orpin, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Balance problems

Balance impairment may be linked to changes in vision or muscle strength, joint stiffness or pain, inner ear problems, or decreased sensation due to joint surgery, ankle sprains, or neuropathy (nerve damage that causes numbness or burning, especially in the feet). Other contributors to poor balance include a sedentary lifestyle or medication side effects.

Beans, lentils, chickpeas, and other "pulses" are loaded with protein, fiber, and other nutrients.

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Legumes are great sources of protein for those on a meat-free diet. Lately one branch of the legume family has been in the international spotlight. "Pulses" are legumes that are harvested for their dried seeds, such as chickpeas (garbanzo beans), lentils, and dried peas and beans. They're such an important protein source that the United Nations declared 2016 the International Year of the Pulses.

"When we as nutritionists talk about beans, most of them are pulses — kidney beans, navy beans, black beans, broad beans, lima beans, butter beans — there are quite a few," says registered dietitian Kathy ­McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. By contrast, legumes such as soybeans, peanuts, peapods, and green beans don't count as pulses.

News briefs

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If you haven't been good about eating a healthy diet, take heart: A Harvard study published July 13, 2017, in The New England Journal of Medicine found that changing to one of three scientifically developed healthy eating programs was associated with longer life. The healthy diets included the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, the Alternate Mediterranean Diet, and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. Scientists looked at self-reported diet and health data from nearly 74,000 healthy men and women who significantly improved their diets and maintained them for 12 years. Scientists then looked at participants' risk of death for another 12 years. The results: people who improved their diet the most were up to 17% less likely to die, whereas those whose diets worsened the most were up to 14% more likely to die. This study strongly indicates that improving your diet, even if you start in middle age, can add years to your life — and vice versa. If you're re-evaluating your diet, check out the Harvard Special Health Report Healthy Eating for a Healthy Heart (www.health.harvard.edu/HEHH).

News briefs

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As we reported in May 2016, regularly drinking coffee is associated with lower blood pressure, less weight gain with aging, and less chance of developing type 2 diabetes or dying from cardiovascular or neurological diseases. Now a pair of 16-year studies published July 10, 2017, in Annals of Internal Medicine link coffee drinking with longevity. One study analyzed the coffee consumption of more than 520,000 men and women. People who drank three or more cups of coffee per day — either caffeinated or decaffeinated — were up to 12% less likely to die during the study, compared with people who didn't drink coffee. The other study involved more than 185,000 middle-age or older coffee drinkers who were African American, Native Hawaiian, Japanese American, Latino, or white. Those who drank four or more cups per day were 18% less likely to die for any reason during the study period compared with nondrinkers. This was the first large study of coffee drinking and longevity that included a racially and ethnically diverse group of people. The findings from these studies suggest, but don't prove, that regular coffee drinking helps you live longer. The beneficial effect of coffee seemed to plateau at more than four cups per day.

On call

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Q. I keep hearing about how great coffee is for your health. Is this just hype, or are there real benefits?

A. Multiple studies have associated drinking coffee with reduced rates of diseases, such as diabetes, kidney stones, and dementia. However, just because people who drink coffee appear to get certain health benefits, these types of studies don't prove that the coffee itself is the reason.

While the drug therapy is becoming more widely available, the science is still not clear on how it may help.

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Medical marijuana has been approved in 28 states and the District of Columbia, but researchers are still trying to connect the dots as to how, and if, it works.

"Unfortunately, there are almost no uses of medical marijuana that have been subjected to the kind of rigorous testing you'd want for a pharmaceutical," says Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, associate professor of medicine at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "This does not mean that it has no benefits, but only that the lack of human studies prevents us from being sure if medical marijuana can really help."

In the journals

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Trouble sleeping? You may need to examine your outlook on life. A study published online July 10, 2017, by Sleep Science and Practice found that people who felt they had more meaning and purpose in their life had fewer sleep disturbances like sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome.

Researchers asked 823 older adults, average age 79, to fill out questionnaires about their sleep quality and their feelings about their lives, such as how strongly they agreed with statements like "I feel good when I think of what I've done in the past and what I hope to do in the future."

In the journals

Hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars, but a study in the July 4, 2017, Journal of the American Medical Association found that less expensive over-the-counter personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) might be a good alternative for some people.

PSAPs resemble hearing aids and help amplify sounds the same way, but are not regulated by the FDA and thus cannot be marketed as a correction or treatment for hearing loss. They often are advertised as being helpful in noisy places like crowds and meetings, and are sold online for about $200 to $400.