Staying Healthy Archive

Inflammation is an important link between obesity, elevated blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes.

Weight loss can reduce inflammation—a major contributor to diabetes.
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We've known for a long time that being overweight is a major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. But only in the last 20 years have researchers determined that metabolism and immune responses are linked and that chronic inflammation plays an important role in the development of obesity, diabetes, and related metabolic diseases. "Inflammation is not only associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but also precedes and predicts these conditions," says Dr. Allison Goldfine, head of the Clinical Research section at Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center.

Research We’re Watching

In the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the emphasis shifted from healthy foods to healthy eating plans. Scientists are also focusing on the role of one's entire diet in preventing osteoporosis.

A team of German researchers analyzed data from more than 90,000 women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), who were ages 50 to 79 when they entered the study.

They follow their own advice to enjoy lots of vegetables, legumes, lean protein, and a fruit-based dessert.

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Following a healthy diet is a proven and powerful way to lower your risk of heart disease. But do you ever wonder if doc-tors actually practice what they preach, especially with regard to their eating habits? While we obviously can't speak for all of them, four Harvard physicians with diverse ethnic backgrounds agreed to share examples of their favorite heart-healthy dinner menus.

Dr. Enrique Caballero, assistant professor of medicine

A native of Mexico, Dr. Caballero directs the Latino Diabetes Initiative at the Joslin Diabetes Center; his research interests include cardiovascular disease prevention.

Your BMI estimates your body fat better than the number on a scale. But a tape measure is an equally important tool.

As your BMI rises above 25, so does your risk for developing high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
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The body mass index (BMI), a measurement derived from the relationship between your weight and your height (see box), is a common way to estimate body fat. It's a simple, fast, and essentially free tool that enables doctors to help identify people who might be at risk for health problems—including cardiovascular disease—that are linked to excess body fat.

People who do volunteer work may reap benefits beyond the satisfaction of helping others.

Doing volunteer work may give you a greater sense of purpose in life—a positive emotion that’s been linked to a lower risk of heart disease.
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If you volunteer on a regular basis, perhaps you've experienced the emotional rewards of donating your time. What you might not realize, however, is that volunteering may offer some added advantages for your heart.

Watching the sugar in your diet can help you control your weight and potentially avoid serious chronic health problems — for example, heart disease and diabetes.

You might be surprised at how many of the "healthy" foods you eat contain sugar. Energy bars, fruit, flavored yogurt — all are "good" foods, but many of them have a lot of sugar. So, the first step to reducing excess sugar in your diet is to read labels carefully and opt for products that are lower in sugar.

The advice to eat chocolate should be taken with a grain of salt.

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Like bees swarming a melting candy bar, the media buzz around the purported health benefits of chocolate has been hard to ignore. The possibility that such a sumptuous treat might actually be good for your heart is very sweet news, indeed.

But there's a lot more to this story that we need to understand before going hog wild in the candy aisle, says Dr. Howard Sesso, associate professor in the division of preventive medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Simply recommending that people eat dark chocolate as a way of improving health is very misleading, since chocolate products tend to have a significant amount of fat, sugar, and calories." Instead, he and colleague Dr. JoAnn Manson are embarking on the Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a four-year trial involving 18,000 participants that is designed to tease out the intricacies of chocolate's health-promoting nutrients (www.cosmostrial.org).

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Q. I heard regular aerobic exercise is better for the brain than strength exercises (resistance training). Is that true?

A. The study you probably heard about involved rats, not humans. The rats were made to engage each day in sustained aerobic exercise, high-intensity interval training, or resistance training, or they were allowed to just be sedentary. At the end of the study, the researchers examined the rats' brains. The rats doing regular aerobic exercise had more brain cells than the sedentary rats. However, the rats made to perform high-intensity interval training or the ones doing resistance training did not have more brain cells than the sedentary rats.

Look for roomy toe boxes, soft inner soles, and sturdy heel counters to give you a better fit and help you stay on the go.

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Bunions, hammertoes, corns, and calluses all make shoe buying a chore. But the wrong shoes can impair your mobility and independence. "Pain from any of those conditions can alter your gait," says Dr. James Ioli, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Corns and calluses

Shoe hunt