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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 the absolute best? That’s a… Read more
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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 can be given with fewer… Read more
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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 the short list. So, what… Read more
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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) in blood samples. Prostate cancer… Read more
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Should you be tested for inflammation?
Let’s face it: inflammation has a bad reputation. Much of it is well-deserved. After all, long-term inflammation contributes to chronic illnesses and deaths. If you just relied on headlines for health information, you might think that stamping out inflammation would eliminate cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, and perhaps aging itself. Unfortunately, that’s not true. Still, our… Read more
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Court ruling curbs unfounded claims for memory supplement
I must have seen commercials for Prevagen 50 times: story after story from everyday people who describe improvement in memory once they began taking Prevagen. And perhaps you recall older commercials playing off the idea that many people take supplements that boast of gut, joint, and heart health claims. Those commercials memorably asked, “So why… Read more
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Feel like you should be drinking less? Start here
When experts talk about the dangers of excessive drinking, we often assume those warnings apply mostly to people with alcohol use disorder, a health issue sometimes referred to as alcoholism. But people who don’t meet formal criteria for this disorder can still experience toxic effects and suffer other serious harms from alcohol, says Dr. John… Read more
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New surgery for benign prostate hyperplasia provides long-lasting benefits
Most men over 50 will develop an enlarged prostate. Also called benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), this bothersome condition makes it hard to urinate and can eventually lead to other problems, such as infections, kidney stones, and bladder damage, if left untreated. Many different BPH therapies are available, including medications and various types of surgery. One… Read more