Staying Healthy Archive

Interrupting sedentary time with short bouts of exercise may diminish the dangers of inactivity.

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Every time we think we have a handle on all the things that are bad for us, another one is added to the list. A few years ago, researchers put inactivity on the roster of major health risks. "Everybody knows smoking is bad for your health. But what isn't common knowledge is that physical inactivity is as powerful a risk factor as smoking," says Dr. I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lee, who has studied the effects of exercise for more than a decade, was one of the first to identify inactivity as a health hazard.

Dr. Lee was among the experts contributing to a special issue on health and exercise of the British journal The Lancet commemorating the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She and her colleagues pored over reports from scores of large observational studies conducted worldwide in which participants answered questions about their lifestyles, including their levels of physical activity, and were then followed over a period of years to see how they fared. When the researchers compared the health outcomes of participants who were inactive—those getting less than 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise—to those who got more exercise, they found that inactivity alone counted for an increased risk of breast and colon cancers as well as heart disease and diabetes. They computed that inactivity was responsible for more than five million deaths a year worldwide, about the same as the number of deaths attributable to smoking.

Nuts are a good source of plant fats and protein, but they are high in calories. It’s a good idea to limit nut consumption to 1 ounce per day.

The benefits of flossing haven’t been verified in randomized clinical trials. However, health authorities still recommend it for preventing disease-causing plaque.

 If you are taking care of a loved one, you need to take special care of yourself, too. There are resources to help you.

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More than 65 million Americans—two-thirds of whom are women—are taking care of a disabled or ailing family member. If you're among them, you're well aware that caring for a loved one can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life, but it can also be one of the most challenging, especially to your own health.

"We know family caregivers are under a particular amount of stress. And stress over time can cause them to become ill," says Dr. Diane Mahoney, Jacque Mohr Professor of Geriatric Nursing Research at MGH Institute of Health Professions, an academic affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital. In fact, more than 20% of caregivers report that their health has suffered as a result of their responsibilities.

A few simple measures can help minimize the sleep disturbances and malaise that can occur when you cross several time zones.

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This month we perform the annual ritual of turning back our clocks as Daylight Savings Time ends. Most of us can handle the one-hour time change easily. However, when we travel long distances across several time zones, few of us can survive the trip without feeling a little out of whack. For holiday travelers flying from coast to coast or overseas, recovering from the symptoms of jet lag—fatigue, insomnia, digestive upsets, and headaches—can consume a day or two of precious vacation time. According to Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, jet lag is due to a misalignment between the external environment and the internal clock in the brain that drives our daily performance, alertness, and the ability to sleep.

What happens during jet lag

Degree and duration of overweight were linked with an increased risk of several cancers among 74,000 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative.

Don't be intimidated about screening tests. The latest guidelines suggest you can choose from multiple strategies.

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Colon cancer continues to be the country's second leading cause of cancer-related deaths and the third most common cancer in men, according to the CDC.

It almost always develops from precancerous polyps (abnormal growths). Screening tests, which are recommended for men ages 50 to 75, help find and sometimes aid removal of polyps before they become cancer. (Men older than 75 may still benefit, depending on their health.)

Keep your feet strong and you'll stay more active.

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Socrates may have been the first to equate healthy feet with quality of life when he famously said, "When one's feet hurt, one hurts all over." His observation rings true even millennia later.

"As you age, healthy feet become even more important for staying mobile, active, and safe," says Dr. Kevin Reimer, a podiatrist with Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "When it hurts to walk, you cut back on activities that you enjoy and that keep you healthy."

In the Journals

Here's a possible strategy to boost memory—exercise four hours after you learn something. In a study published in the July 11, 2016, Current Biology, researchers found that exercise after learning may improve your memory of the new information, but only if done in a specific time window.

A break from a medication is beneficial only in certain cases.

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When you think of a holiday, your medicine cabinet probably doesn't come to mind. But for people who take medications long-term, a drug holiday—a break from a medication for days or even years—may be helpful, for some medicines. "For some people, it gives the body a chance to recover the systems that have been suppressed by the drug," says Dr. Michael Craig Miller, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Why take a break?