Staying Healthy Archive

Ask the doctor

Q. Are vitamin supplements (like vitamin D) good for your health, and can you tell me who might benefit from taking the pills?

Competition is great for older adults, but don't skip training camp before your season starts.

Canine companionship yields heartfelt benefits for many people.

Sometime around the Stone Age, a few docile wolves crept out of the woods to warm themselves by the human campfire. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, nearly half of U.S. households include at least one canine family member. For most owners, the responsibilities and costs are easily outweighed by the unmatched love and devotion that dogs can offer.

Extra-virgin olive oil and nuts seem to contribute to the benefits.

A drink or two a day has long been touted as beneficial for the heart. But new research suggests that for older people, even moderate drinking may cause worrisome changes in the heart's structure and function. Moderate drinking is defined as a drink per day for women and two drinks a day for men.

The study included nearly 4,500 adults with an average age of 76 years. They drank varying amounts of alcohol, ranging from none to 14 or more drinks per week. Researchers looked at the size, structure, and function of different parts of their hearts using cardiac imaging techniques.

Q. Should I stretch before or after my workout to help prevent muscle injuries and soreness? I've gotten conflicting advice on this.

A. We all remember the importance placed on stretching in our high school physical education classes. However, recent expert opinion has moved away from static stretching before activity and toward a gradual and active warm-up period before exercise. Stretching a healthy muscle before exercise does not prevent injury or soreness.

Meeting fiber goals improves overall nutrition and helps with regularity, even without dramatic dietary changes.

Q. Why can't doctors decide if vitamin supplements are good for your health, or not?

A. You might think that it would be simple for doctors to determine if vitamin supplements are good for your health. Alas, it's not. Here's why.

Give your relationship a tune-up by assessing strengths, letting go of disappointments, and doing things together.

Foods such as kale, cantaloupe, and quinoa can boost the amount of nutrients you consume without increasing calories.

Getting enough nutrients through diet is challenging as we age. Our bodies don't absorb nutrients as well as they once did, yet we tend to need fewer calories and eat less. So it's important to make the most out of the foods we do eat. One way is by choosing more nutrient-dense foods, which provide more nutrition bang for the calorie buck. "They contain an abundance of nutrients and other healthful substances—vitamins and minerals, fiber, lean protein, and unsaturated fats—but are not excessive in calories. This is compared with foods of low nutrient density that are high in calories," says Liz Moore, a registered dietitian at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.