Staying Healthy Archive

Here's how to enhance the foods you already like with heart-healthy plant sources.

According to a recent national food survey by the CDC, 87% of American adults do not eat the minimum daily recommended portions of fruit (1.5 to 2 cups), and 91% are not getting the recommended amount of vegetables (2 to 3 cups a day). The reasons for this unhealthy trend vary. One important factor is that food preferences, including an aversion to fruits and vegetables, form early in life and can be hard to change. "People say, 'I don't like salad' and 'I don't like spinach,' and that's that," says Stacey Nelson, a registered dietitian and manager of clinical nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Guidelines recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise, but an estimated 60% of older Americans fall short. Still, even with a relatively low dose of daily exercise, men and women ages 60 and older were at a 22% lower risk of death over 10 years, according to a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). The study was observational, however, so although it strongly links exercise to longer life, it can't prove that one causes the other.

If you start taking an antiviral medication after catching the flu, will it keep your family members from catching the bug, too? Maybe not, according to a study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The prescription antivirals oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) can cut a case of the flu short by suppressing the virus's overpowering urge to copy itself inside you. Less viral "shedding" by the body could, hypothetically, make it less likely that people who live in the same house will also get sick.

A recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that seniors got no mental boost from taking daily omega-3 fatty acid supplements and antioxidant vitamins for four years. On the other hand, that doesn't mean eating a nutritious diet throughout life doesn't promote healthy aging.

The clinical trial involved more than 3,500 people, average age 73. Researchers were primarily testing the ability of daily nutritional supplements to prevent vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which damages the light-sensing retina in the back of the eye. Participants also had tests of their mental function every other year in addition to annual eye exams.

This simple activity is one of the best ways to protect your heart.

Planning ahead can help you navigate the hazards of holiday overindulgence.

This adapted version of the sport can help improve your strength, endurance, and balance.

When you think of boxing, you may picture greats like Rocky Marciano duking it out with Jersey Joe Walcott. But boxing isn't just a sport anymore. It's also a popular way to stay fit among older adults, through a version known as fitness boxing. There's no getting into a ring or taking any punches, so there's no risk of head trauma. Instead, fitness boxing has adapted the movements of the sport into exercise routines. "This kind of boxing has many health benefits, because it constantly requires you to think, change your position, and change your posture," says physical therapist Linda Arslanian, director of rehabilitation services at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's hospital.

Avoid food that's been left out on a table for more than two hours, and handle food properly if you're doing the cooking.

There's no magic pill you can swallow to make you live longer, but what about food? A study from the Harvard School of Public Health published Aug. 4, 2015, in BMJ found that people who ate spicy foods almost every day had a 14% lower risk of death than people who ate spicy foods once a week. Researchers evaluated the health and diet information of almost 500,000 people in China from 2004 to 2008, then followed up with them a few years later. The study was observational, so it didn't show that spicy foods caused people to live longer, only that people who regularly ate spicy food—especially food with fresh and dried chili peppers—were less likely to have died during the study period than those who ate spicy food less frequently. "Some evidence from other studies suggests the bioactive ingredients in spicy foods such as capsaicin may lower 'bad' cholesterol and triglycerides and improve inflammation," says study author Dr. Lu Qi.

If you'd like to add more chili pepper to your diet, stick with something healthy, such as turkey chili or lentil pilaf, and skip the greasy tacos. But be careful: spicy foods may trigger an increase in gastric acid in some people, causing heartburn.