Author: qisoej

  • Gratitude enhances health, brings happiness — and may even lengthen lives

    Gratitude enhances health, brings happiness — and may even lengthen lives

    Several evenings a week, as Tyler VanderWeele gathers around the dinner table with his wife and two young kids, the family deliberately pauses during the meal to do something simple but profound. Each member shares several things for which they’re grateful — an act that VanderWeele, co-director of the Initiative…

  • Life can be challenging: Build your own resilience plan

    Life can be challenging: Build your own resilience plan

    Nantucket, a beautiful, 14-mile-long island off the coast of Massachusetts, has a 40-point resiliency plan to help withstand the buffeting seas surrounding it as climate change takes a toll. Perhaps we can all benefit from creating individual resilience plans to help handle the big and small issues that erode our…

  • Is the portfolio diet the best diet ever?

    Is the portfolio diet the best diet ever?

    News flash: What we eat can play a pivotal role in warding off — or treating — disease and enhancing quality of life. You may already believe this, and certainly mounting evidence supports that idea. But on the cluttered shelf of diets claiming top health benefits, which one ranks as…

  • Winter hiking: Magical or miserable?

    Winter hiking: Magical or miserable?

    By midwinter, our urge to hibernate can start to feel constricting instead of cozy. What better antidote to being cooped up indoors than a bracing hike in the crisp air outdoors? Winter backdrops are stark, serene, and often stunning. With fewer people on the trail, you may spot more creatures…

  • Why all the buzz about inflammation — and just how bad is it?

    Why all the buzz about inflammation — and just how bad is it?

    Quick health quiz: how bad is inflammation for your body? You’re forgiven if you think inflammation is very bad. News sources everywhere will tell you it contributes to the top causes of death worldwide. Heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer all have been linked to chronic inflammation. And that’s just…

  • Prostate cancer: Short-course radiation as effective as longer-term treatments

    Prostate cancer: Short-course radiation as effective as longer-term treatments

    It used to be that radiation therapy for prostate cancer involved weeks or months of repeat visits to a clinic for treatment. Today that’s not necessarily true. Instead of giving small doses (called fractions) per session until the full plan is completed, radiation delivery is moving toward high-dose fractions that…

  • A liquid biopsy for metastatic prostate cancer

    A liquid biopsy for metastatic prostate cancer

    Metastatic prostate cancer can progress in different ways. In some men the disease advances rapidly, while other men have slower-growing cancer and a better prognosis. Researchers are developing various tools for predicting how fast prostate cancer might progress. Among the most promising are assays that count circulating tumor cells (CTCs)…

  • An action plan to fight unhealthy inflammation

    An action plan to fight unhealthy inflammation

    Although inflammation serves a vital role in the body’s defense and repair systems, chronic inflammation can cause more harm than good. And that may make you wonder: what can I do about it? In fact, there’s a lot you can do. And you may already be doing it. That’s because…

  • No-cost, low-cost, and bigger splurges for climate-conscious gifts

    No-cost, low-cost, and bigger splurges for climate-conscious gifts

    Looking for gifts to give or donate this year? Climate-conscious gifts come in many guises. They may directly support our environment, for example, or aim to reduce fossil fuel use and electronic, textile, and food waste. Or they might offer enjoyable, creative ways to connect, reuse, and recycle — and…

  • A muscle-building obsession in boys: What to know and do

    A muscle-building obsession in boys: What to know and do

    By the time boys are 8 or 10, they’re steeped in Marvel action heroes with bulging, oversized muscles and rock-hard abs. By adolescence, they’re deluged with social media streams of bulked-up male bodies. The underlying messages about power and worth prompt many boys to worry and wonder about how to…