Filtered By:
Source: Harvard Health Blog
This page shows you your search results in order of date.
Order by Relevance | Date
Total 302 results found since Jan 2013.
5 inflammation-fighting food swaps
Inflammation: if you follow health news, you probably hear about it often. When is inflammation helpful? How can it be harmful? What steps can you take to tone it down?
What is inflammation and how does it affect your body?
If you’re not familiar with the term, inflammation refers to an immune system reaction to an infection or injury. In those instances, inflammation is a beneficial sign that your body is fighting to repair itself by sending in an army of healing white blood cells. As the injury heals or the illness is brought under control, inflammation subsides. You’ve probably seen this happen with a minor ankle sp...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 10, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kelly Bilodeau Tags: Arthritis Autoimmune diseases Health Heart Health Nutrition Source Type: blogs
Is IBD an underrecognized health problem in minority groups?
As many people know, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex condition affecting the intestine, which is the part of the digestive tract that helps digest food and remove water, salt, and waste.
But you might not know this: in recent years in the US, IBD is being diagnosed more often among people who are Black, Hispanic/Latinx, East and Southeast Asian, or from other minority groups than it was in past decades.
Is this a true rise in cases? Is IBD underrecognized in minority populations? While we don’t have all the answers yet, exploring health disparities in IBD and explaining its symptoms may encourage more peopl...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 7, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa, MD, MPH Tags: Digestive Disorders Health Health care disparities Inflammation Source Type: blogs
Can some postmenopausal women with breast cancer skip chemotherapy?
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women. In the last two decades, the treatment of breast cancers has become personalized. This has been possible due to the subtyping of breast cancers. Breast cancers have been subtyped based on the receptors on the breast cancer cell. The most clinically significant receptors — those that have targeted therapies — are the estrogen and progesterone receptors and the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Cancers that have the estrogen and progesterone receptors are termed hormone receptor (HR)-positive cancers.
The development of hormone therapy for HR-positi...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 15, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Salewa T. Salewa Oseni, MD Tags: Cancer Medical Research Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Women, alcohol, and COVID-19
Excessive alcohol use is a common response to coping with stress. Alcohol use increased following the September 11th terrorist attacks and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The COVID-19 pandemic is following this same path. However, this pandemic is different in its scope and duration. COVID-19 is associated with both negative health and economic impacts, as well as grief, loss, and prolonged stress and uncertainty.
The emotional impact of COVID-19 on women
According to the U.S. National Pandemic Emotional Impact Report, compared to men, women reported higher rates of pandemic-related changes in productivity, sleep, mood, healt...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 6, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dawn Sugarman, PhD Tags: Addiction Alcohol Coronavirus and COVID-19 Women's Health Source Type: blogs
An emerging treatment option for men with recurring prostate cancer after radiation therapy
Prostate cancer is often a multifocal disease, meaning that several tumors can be present in different parts of gland at the same time. Not all of these tumors are equally problematic, however. And it’s increasingly thought that the tumor with the most aggressive features — called the index lesion — dictates how a man’s cancer is likely to behave overall. That concept has given rise to a new treatment option. Called partial gland ablation (PGA), and also focal therapy, it entails treating only the index lesion and its surrounding tissues, instead of removing the prostate surgically or treating the whole gla...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 2, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Health Living With Prostate Cancer Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs
Fully vaccinated against COVID-19? So, what can you safely do?
Congrats on getting your COVID-19 vaccine! You qualify as fully vaccinated two weeks after your second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, or two weeks after your single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Maybe you’re wondering what you can safely do now that you’re fully vaccinated. As an infectious disease specialist, I’ve provided answers to some common questions. Please keep in mind that information about COVID-19 and vaccines is evolving, and recommendations may change as we learn more.
Can I gather with people outside my h...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 25, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Amy C. Sherman, MD Tags: Coronavirus and COVID-19 Health Parenting Relationships Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Beyond CBD: Here come the other cannabinoids, but where ’s the evidence?
In the span of a few years, the component of cannabis called CBD (cannabidiol) went from being a relatively obscure molecule to a healthcare fad that has swept the world, spawning billions in sales, millions of users, CBD workout clothing, pillowcases, hamburgers, ice cream — you name it. The concerns of such a rapid adoption are that enthusiasm might be soaring high above the actual science, and that there are safety issues, such as drug interactions, that are given short shrift in the enthusiasm to treat chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, and many of the other conditions that CBD is believed to help alleviate.
Cannabis, ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 23, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Peter Grinspoon, MD Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Drugs and Supplements Fatigue Marijuana Pain Management Source Type: blogs
Racial disparities and early-onset colorectal cancer: A call to action
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of death from cancer in both men and women in the US. Thanks in large part to increased screening of those over age 50 in last decade, overall CRC rates have been falling among the general population. However, the incidence of CRC among younger individuals in the US is rising at an alarming rate. Over the past 20 years, the rate of CRC has increased by 2.2% per year in people under age 50. Hidden within these statistics are the significant disparities in CRC incidence and outcomes that exist for African Americans.
Compared to whites, African Americans have a 20% higher in...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 17, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Andrew Chan, MD, MPH Tags: Cancer Digestive Disorders Health care disparities Source Type: blogs
You got the COVID-19 vaccine? I have vaccine envy
I admit it: I have vaccine envy. It’s that feeling of jealousy, disappointment, or resentment you feel when someone else gets the vaccine for COVID-19 — and you can’t.
I’m not proud of it. We should all be celebrating the astounding speed with which multiple effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines were developed. Millions of people are receiving them daily, bringing the increasingly real possibility of herd immunity closer day by day.
So, I should just be patient, right? It’s not easy.
Vaccine envy is inevitable
Current evidence suggests vaccination could save your life and those around you while helping daily life ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 11, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Coronavirus and COVID-19 Health Health policy Vaccines Source Type: blogs
A look at the 2020 –2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs), published by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), provide science-based recommendations on what to eat and drink to promote health, reduce the risk of chronic disease, and meet nutrient needs. The guidelines provide a framework for policy makers and nutrition and health professionals to help individuals consume a healthy and nutritionally adequate diet. They also help inform dietary planning for federal programs including the National School Lunch Program, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), and the...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 10, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Carol Sullivan, MS, RD, CSO, LDN Tags: Health Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Seeking solace, finding resilience in a pandemic
In times like these, it can feel wrong to feel happy. There is so much suffering in the world that appreciating the goodness that still exists can seem unempathic, if not altogether futile. A landmark study on happiness often mentioned at dinner parties and social gatherings (when we had those things) considered how people react to intense, sudden changes to their circumstances. The researchers found that people who had recently won the lottery were no happier after some time had passed than people who had experienced severe trauma that paralyzed their lower bodies. It’s a testament to stubbornness as our common lot in l...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 25, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Adam P. Stern, MD Tags: Behavioral Health Coronavirus and COVID-19 Mental Health Source Type: blogs
Lowering cholesterol protects your heart and brain, regardless of your age
High or abnormal cholesterol levels, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction play a key role in atherosclerosis and plaque buildup, the most common cause of heart attacks and strokes. (Endothelial dysfunction refers to impaired functioning of the inner lining of blood vessels on the heart’s surface. It results in these vessels inappropriately narrowing instead of widening, which limits blood flow.) There are many different types of cholesterol, including high density lipoprotein (HDL, or good, cholesterol); triglycerides (a byproduct of excess calories consumed, which are stored as fat); and low-density lipoprotein (LD...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 24, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Hanna Gaggin, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Healthy Eating Heart Health Source Type: blogs
What ’s your approach to health? Check your medicine cabinet
Do all kids spy? Just me? When I was a child, I spent hours snooping in my parents’ nightstands, Granny’s pocketbook, my older brothers’ dresser drawers. I’m not sure what I was looking for, exactly, other than validation of my suspicion that the teenagers and adults in my life were keeping secrets from me.
And no opportunity for sleuthing seemed richer than the twin mirrored medicine cabinets hanging from my parents’ bathroom wall. My mother’s was kind of boring, its glass shelves lined with bottles of aspirin and antacids, plus a dusty jar of jewel-toned bath oil beads. My father’s was a treasure trove ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 16, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA Tags: Health Healthy Aging Healthy Eating Managing your health care Source Type: blogs
Flowers, chocolates, organ donation — are you in?
Chocolates and flowers are great gifts for Valentine’s Day. But what if the gifts we give this year could be truly life-changing? A gift that could save someone’s life, or free them from dialysis?
You can do this. For people in need of organ, tissue, or blood donation, a donor can give them a gift that exceeds the value of anything that you can buy. That’s why February 14th is not only Valentine’s Day — it’s also National Donor Day, a time when health organizations nationwide sponsor blood drives and sign-ups for organ and tissue donation. Read on if you’ve ever wondered what can be donated, had reservations ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 11, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Heart Health Kidney and urinary tract Lung disease Source Type: blogs
COVID-19 vaccines: Safety, side effects –– and coincidence
As the pandemic rages on, it’s increasingly clear that widespread vaccination is essential to help contain it. Physical distancing, universal face coverings, and frequent handwashing are effective, but not foolproof. And of course, these measures don’t work if they are not followed.
So, the rapid development of mRNA vaccines and other vaccines to prevent COVID-19 is welcome — some say miraculous — news. But while many people are scrambling to get a vaccine, others are hesitating.
Start here: Are these vaccines safe and effective?
It’s natural to wonder if brand new vaccines against a novel coronavirus, developed ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 8, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Vaccines Source Type: blogs
