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Have a Weigh-in Weigh yourself every day or every other day at about the same time. Most people weigh less in the mornings before they eat, so that may be the best time of day to do it. “The reason I recommend weighing yourself daily is that you see trends, such as weight gain, sooner rather than later," says Marjorie Nolan, MS, RD, a nutritionist with a private practice in New York and a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics....

“I definitely promote food scales,” says Liz Weinandy, RD, MPH, a dietitian in the non-surgical weight-loss program at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus. A food scale can be used for any meal plan or diet that specifies a serving size in ounces. A national survey of more than 6,000 adults showed that people who measured their food were more successful at losing weight and keeping it off than those who did not....

Now an unusual drug choice for treating a viral infection may have a shot at being a breakout success. Famotidine, best known as the active ingredient in the heartburn drug Pepcid, is being studied in hospitalized COVID-19 patients at Northwell Health, the largest health system in the New York City area. Here’s how this trial got started, and what it may mean for the future of battling the coronavirus....

An ADHD diagnosis is based on reported signs, symptoms, behavior, and history rather than any single test. ADHD symptoms can vary depending on the exact type and severity of the condition. Though many people lose focus, get distracted, and act impulsively on occasion, these behaviors are more severe and more frequent for people with ADHD. Without proper identification and treatment, these behaviors negatively affect their quality of life at work, at school, and at home....

But if you or your loved one is living with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), you may have questions that go beyond those posed by the general public. We spoke to experts and examined the research to answer the most important questions about the COVID-19 vaccines for people living with AS. 1. Why Is It Important to Get the Vaccine if You Have Ankylosing Spondylitis? COVID-19 is a more widespread, debilitating, and deadly virus than most of us have seen in our lifetime....

Scientists now believe that overuse of antibiotics could be contributing to the increasing incidence of colorectal cancer (affecting both the colon and rectum). Drawing on a large primary care database of up to two million people in Scotland, researchers from the University of Aberdeen and Queen’s University Belfast looked at health records of nearly 8,000 people with colorectal cancer (sometimes referred to as bowel cancer). Their results, published in July 2021 in the Annals of Oncology, showed that antibiotic use was linked with an increased risk of colon cancer across all ages....

We sat down with Geronimus to discuss her current work and to learn more about her perspective on wellness. What are you working on now? I’m developing a general approach to disrupting weathering in affected populations, “Jedi Public Health,” which applies social psychological understandings of social identity, environmental cues, and stereotype threat as they affect physiological stress process activation among social identity groups. Many researchers have established a troubling fact: The gap in life expectancy between higher and lower educated Americans has been growing at least since 1990....

To find out what was causing the illnesses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at whole genome sequences and found that the strains of bacteria matched each other, suggesting a common source of infection. The agency tested blood samples from each of the patients, and investigated the soil, water, and consumer products around and inside their homes. A bottle of the aromatherapy spray in one location was tested and found to contain B....

Are You Experiencing Excessive Gas and Bloating? Gas is a normal part of digestion, but how much you have depends on many variables, including your diet, when and how fast you eat, and the efficiency of your digestive system. “It’s normal to pass gas,” says Lena Palmer, MD, gastroenterologist, assistant professor in the department of medicine, and medical director of nutritional services at Loyola University Chicago. “The average person passes gas 10 times a day, but it’s still considered normal to pass gas up to 20 times per day....

A keto diet is high fat (70 to 80 percent of calories will come from fat), moderate protein, and very low carb (sticking to 20 to 50 grams of carbs or net carbs per day). Historically, healthcare providers have used the diet to treat children with epilepsy, but more adults are going keto for weight loss. (1) “I consider keto diets to be therapeutic diets, meaning they’re designed to be done short term,” says the Chicago-based functional and integrative nutritionist Olivia Wagner, RDN....

Unfortunately, many kids with mental health issues don’t get the treatment they need. Indeed: More than 2 in 3 American youth with severe depression don’t receive consistent mental health care, according to the Mental Health America report. The good news: A growing number of programs offer online therapy for minors. Online therapy helps adolescents acquire the skills and resources they need to feel better and has the potential to relieve the burden of mental health needs in children and adolescents, according to an article published in the journal Child Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America....

Using data from 884 studies and more than 883,000 patients, researchers at Brown University systematically reviewed all of the existing evidence on micronutrients taken as dietary supplements. After evaluating 27 different types, they identified several that reduced the risk of cardiovascular problems like heart attack or stroke, as well as others that offered no benefit or even had a negative effect. This analysis represents the first comprehensive, evidence-based map quantifying micronutrient supplements’ potential effects on heart health outcomes, said principal investigator Simin Liu, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology and medicine at Brown University, in a press release....

Part of this may be because Black and Hispanic women had more severe strokes, and were able to receive more appropriate intensive care at residential facilities than would be possible if they were discharged from the hospital to their homes, says a lead author of the study, Trudy Gaillard, PhD, RN, an associate professor at Florida International University’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Miami. “Survivors of severe strokes are less likely to return to work or to be independent in basic activities of daily living,” Dr....

But how do you know if your child is overweight or obese? Doctors maintain that the way to tell involves a term you may already be familiar with: BMI, or body mass index. What Is BMI, and Why Does Your Child’s Number Matter? BMI is a scale that defines obesity by taking body weight and height into account. Children whose weight puts them in the 95th percentile, or heavier than 95 percent of children their age, are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)....

Specifically, BMI is one way that healthcare professionals estimate whether you’re at a normal weight or whether you could benefit from losing a few or many pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (1) It’s also proven to be a generally reliable and easy way to estimate a person’s risk of obesity. BMI has been used to measure obesity in the United States since 1985, and the current standards were set by the National Institutes of Health in 1998, according to a May 2016 study published in the Journal of Obesity....

In addition, RA may be connected to an increased risk of dementia. A review published in April 2020 in the journal Cureus found that developing RA increases the risk of developing dementia as well. Other factors may also contribute to this risk. A study published in February 2021 in the journal Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism found that people with RA who also had heart disease or heart disease risk factors had an increased risk for dementia compared with those who had RA but no heart-related risk factors....

One user, @Ko0maaa, shared about the trend on July 25 in a video that has been viewed more than 155,000 times. “Apparently rice kirpies [sic] are supposed to give you an insane pump.” In the clip he went on to set his personal record in the weighted squat exercise, squatting 365 pounds — 30 pounds more than his previous record, according to his video. Caroline Klinger, RD, a sports dietitian in private practice in Nashville, endorsed @Ko0maaa’s claims in her own TikTok video that has amassed more than 2....

Your body needs cholesterol, a waxy substance made in the liver and intestines, to build cell membranes in every cell, produce certain hormones, and digest food. Cholesterol is transported in your blood by lipoproteins, which include lipids (aka fats) and proteins. Lipoproteins act as carriers that hold together cholesterol, certain lipids, and triglycerides — a type of fat found in the blood. One commonly tested form of cholesterol is low-density lipoprotein (LDL), often known as “bad” cholesterol because it’s associated with increased cardiovascular risk....

A study published in the journal Cancer Research found that women whose blood tests showed high levels of certain chemical compounds — indicating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables — were able to clear their HPV infections faster than their peers, which could help reduce the risk of cancer. Fighting Cervical Cancer With Diet “Lots of research points to great benefits associated with diet and cancer. Eating mostly a plant-based diet — one that is made up primarily of fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains — is the best,” says Susan Moores, RD, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman....

The prognosis, or outlook, for most cases of cervical cancer has never been better, according to specialists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Your options may include several specialized treatments, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The best choices will depend on several factors: The stage of the cancerWhether the cancer has spread to other parts of the bodyThe size of the tumorYour desire to have children in the future...