Staying Healthy Archive

These three remedies may reduce symptom duration and severity.

While there's no cure for the common cold, everyone seems to have a surefire remedy they embrace.

Some of the popular ones are sucking on zinc lozenges, boosting your vitamin C intake, and even slurping up steaming bowls of old-fashioned chicken soup.

Research we're watching

A new type of bug spray may hit the market in the next few years. The Environmental Protection Agency recently approved a new ingredient for use in these products. Called nootkatone, this ingredient, which smells like grapefruit, is hoped to safely kill and drive away mosquitos and ticks. Studies show that it's about as effective as other ingredients used in insect sprays, and it can provide protection against bugs for several hours at a time.

Nootkatone is found naturally in Alaska yellow cedar trees as well as in grapefruit skin and has long been used in perfumes. Now that the ingredient is registered with the EPA, companies can use it to develop commercial insecticides, something that could happen as soon as 2022, according to the CDC. This will expand the options for insect control and may be particularly useful in areas where insects have become resistant to existing products, says the CDC.

This daily routine can help your aging skin stay healthy.

Your skin goes through many changes as you age. All you need to do is look in the mirror.

Aging skin loses fat and becomes thinner and drier. Red and pimply spots can appear on the face (a condition known as rosacea).

Peer into your pillbox: It may be time to streamline your drug regimen.

Medication regimens often start simply, perhaps with a multivitamin and a single prescription drug to treat a chronic condition. But with age and more health problems, a regimen may grow to include additional prescription drugs and dietary supplements (such as vitamin D and calcium), plus over-the-counter medicines to reduce symptoms such as pain or heartburn. In time, you can find yourself facing a crowded pillbox and a complicated regimen.

"Among people age 62 to about 85, a third will take five medications per person. In the higher-risk population that I take care of, those people average 15 medications per person. And some of the dialysis patients take about 20 prescriptions," says Joanne Doyle Petrongolo, a pharmacist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Interrupt your sitting time with a break every hour.

For many people, the effects of the pandemic include less physical activity. But long periods of sitting are bad for health. They're associated with increased risks for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and metabolic syndrome (a cluster of health conditions that include abdominal obesity, unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar). Too much sitting is even linked to an early death. The good news: staying active throughout the day helps reverse the effects of too much sitting.

Doctor's orders

"Take a two-, five-, or 10-minute break at least once per hour," advises Dr. Beth Frates, director of wellness programming for the Stroke Research and Recovery Institute at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

The more risk factors, the higher your chance of exposure.

Your local gym, the take-out joint, the gas station or grocery store, your doctor's office, your grandchild's playground: among the public areas you visit most, which ones pose the biggest risks for exposure to COVID-19?

For advice, we turned to Joseph Allen, associate professor of exposure assessment science and director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He suggests considering the following five risk factors.

News briefs

If you'd like to try a vegan diet but can't imagine nixing all animal products, consider two recent findings. One, published online July 22, 2020, by The BMJ, comes from researchers at Harvard and Tehran University. They analyzed 32 studies about protein intake that included more than 715,000 people, with follow-up periods ranging from three-and-a-half years to over three decades. Combining data from multiple studies, the researchers calculated that getting 3% more of total calories in the form of plant protein (like beans, nuts, and whole grains) lowered people's risk for premature death by 5%. Another study, published online July 13, 2020, by JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at the survival rates of more than 416,000 people who'd reported their diet and lifestyle information 16 years earlier (when they were 50 to 71 years old). In this study, shifting just 3% of calorie intake from animal protein (meat, poultry, fish, or dairy products) to plant protein corresponded with a 10% decrease in death from any cause over that period, for both men and women. In particular, replacing eggs and red meat with plant proteins appeared to reduce death risk by as much as 24% in men and 21% in women — especially in people with high intake of eggs and red meat. The new findings don't prove that favoring plant-based proteins will add years to your life, but many other studies have associated high intakes of red and processed meats with shorter life span.

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In the journals

If winter brings you a sore throat and coughing, a spoonful of honey can be quite soothing. And it might even reduce symptoms from an upper respiratory tract infection, suggests a review of studies published online Aug. 18, 2020, by BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Upper respiratory infections (such as colds) are viral illnesses that affect the nose, throat, voice box, and large airways that lead to the lungs. Symptoms include a stuffy nose, congestion, sore throat, and cough. Researchers reviewed 14 studies of almost 1,800 people with upper respiratory infections being treated with either honey or usual methods (antihistamines, expectorants, cough suppressants, and painkillers). Honey appeared to improve symptoms (especially cough frequency and severity), and in some cases shorten the duration of symptoms by a day or two. The findings were only observational and don't prove honey is a cure. But honey has antimicrobial properties, and scientists say that in adults (but not in kids age one or younger), it's a harmless way to address symptoms.

Image: © Wojtek Skora/Getty Images

Broccoli, brussels sprouts, and other cruciferous vegetables are associated with fewer calcified fatty plaques in the aorta.

Drinking no more than four or five 8-ounce cups of coffee per day—equal to about 400 milligrams of caffeine—helps people get the drink's health benefits with a lower risk of caffeine side effects like anxiety and nervousness.