ArcaMax

Interior belly fat -- aka visceral fat -- is the fat you cannot see (at least not yet) that's building up around your internal organs and damaging your health. Not only does it increase your risk for prediabetes and diabetes, but it also damages your cardiovascular system.

A study in European Heart Journal used AI to evaluate imaging from more ...Read more

We are all a little thin-skinned (your skin at its thickest is only a few millimeters), but this multi-function organ, covering 15 to 21 square feet, can tell you a lot about what's going on inside your body.

As a billboard for signs of premature aging, neglect or disease, the skin can reveal that you're sleep deprived, dehydrated, if you smoke...Read more

Niacin, aka vitamin B3, is essential for your health, and the only way you can get any is through foods and supplements. Niacin's job is to help convert food into energy and support the nervous system, and it is available from nuts, seeds, bananas, poultry and whole grains and is often added to cereals. The recommended daily amount is 16 ...Read more

Approximately 59 million people in the U.S. (about 23% of adults) are receiving treatment for some form of mental illness each year and about 1 in 20 adults are dealing with a serious mental illness, such as chronic depression, panic and bipolar disorders, phobic anxiety, and PTSD. Fully 6% report that their condition significantly interferes ...Read more

You know I am always stressing how important it is to stop prediabetes from progressing to full-blown Type 2 diabetes -- with all its life-altering complications involving your heart, eyes, nerves, joints, digestion and brain.

Well, let's all take a deep breath -- and exhale very slowly. A preliminary lab study in Nature has found a brain ...Read more

LDL is often called bad or lousy cholesterol -- for good reason. If you have too much floating in your bloodstream and sticking to the walls of your blood vessels and arteries, your arteries stiffen, and you can end up with blockages that cause a heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery or kidney disease, dementia and/or depression.

Lowering LDL...Read more

Pizza, cold cuts and cured meats, burritos, tacos, chips, bacon, frankfurters and sausages are major sources of excess salt in the American diet. And the salt in those foods doesn't just impact how the heart and kidney function, leading to high blood pressure (HBP). It also activates immune cells in the brain, triggering inflammation that then ...Read more

If you are younger than 60, you probably aren't thinking much about the risk of developing cognition problems or dementia (although I think you should). But every time you sip flavored water, soda, energy drinks, or eat yogurt or a low-calorie dessert sweetened with aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-k, erythritol, sorbitol or xylitol, you may be ...Read more

Every year, almost 610,000 Americans have a first-time stroke and, for around 87% of them, it's an ischemic stroke, in which a blood clot or plaque in the arteries blocks blood flow to the brain. And surprisingly, about a third of people hospitalized for stroke are younger than 65!

A family history and genetics can play a role, but stress, ...Read more

In 1965, when Len Barry sang "One, two, three/Oh, that's all elementary," he had no idea that he had created the perfect slogan for an anti-diabetes campaign. Fast forward 60 years and the PREDIMED-Plus study is singing the praises of 1-2-3 simple lifestyle changes that can cut someone's risk of developing full-blown Type 2 diabetes by 31%.

...Read more

Omega-3s, including ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), are essential for cardiovascular health -- and studies indicate they also have a role in infant development, brain health, easing rheumatoid arthritis pain, and in preventing some cancers, macular degeneration and dry eye.

Now, a study ...Read more

Did you know that only around 5% of folks who engage in vigorous physical activity report that they're always dealing with pain? In contrast, a staggering 57% of the millions of American adults who don't get even the minimum recommended 150 minutes a week of activity say they're always hurting. Clearly, a lot of you are having to deal with the ...Read more

When Whitney Houston sang "children are our future/teach them well and let them lead the way," she was right on. But as a country, we're letting our kids down, big time.

A recent research letter in JAMA Pediatrics looked at 10 years' worth of data on young people ages 12 to 25. It showed that obesity was the cause of almost 80% of diabetes ...Read more

"All in the Family" was a hilarious take on the tough times that a child (Gloria), in-law (son-in-law Meathead) and parents (Archie and Edith) can encounter. But there's nothing funny about the way family members can increase their near-and-dear's risk for Type 2 diabetes.

A study presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes ...Read more

We're learning more and more about the far-reaching benefits of the new weight loss GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound. For example, a study in JAMA Oncology shows that folks taking these medications have a 17% lower risk of developing 12 of 13 obesity-related cancers, plus lung cancer, than folks who don't take them. ...Read more