Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season. While the holidays should be a happy time, for many people, it is a time filled with sadness, self-reflection, loneliness, and anxiety.  Typical reasons for the holiday blues include stress, fatigue, financial concerns, and separation from family and friends. Stress and depression can ruin your holidays and […]

We’ve come a long way in our understanding of how the body works and how food influences the body’s performance.  Back in the 80s and 90s, we were obsessed with the low-fat lifestyle, eschewing foods with fat like cheese, butter and yogurt, for their low-fat, and usually less satisfying, siblings. Recently, a trend called Carb […]

My mother has dementia. When I talk to her it is like talking to a pre-school age child — stream of consciousness-style ramblings of reality mixed with fantasy. It is disturbing to compare this woman to the person my mother was before dementia.  She was smart, witty, and quite opinionated.  She was a modern woman […]

Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended, we face a few months of shorter days and less sun exposure.  For those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), this is a particularly difficult time of year. SAD is a type of depression triggered by seasonal light changes. In most cases, symptoms begin during late fall […]

There seems to be some confusion about whether dairy should be part of the American diet.  While some dietitians recommend dairy, specifically milk, because it’s a good source of calcium and vitamin D — nutrients that contribute to bone health — researchers say that the science behind milk consumption and bone health is not conclusive.  […]

It’s cold and flu season again!  Because colds and flu share many symptoms, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to tell the difference between them. The flu and the common cold are both respiratory illnesses but they are caused by different viruses. Colds generally do not result in serious health problems, such as pneumonia, […]

If you’ve ever worked in a cube farm, you know the difficulty of establishing a temperature that suits everyone.  As someone who was cold natured, I frequently wore a sweater in the office on sweltering August days. Now that I work from home, I have complete control of the environmental temperature in my work space. […]

We’ve all noticed that the sun rises later each day this time of year.  We see the change in the weather and make the accompanying changes in our food and clothing choices.  The autumn season is all about change – the leaves, the weather, our habits. Seasonal mood shifts often include less energy, feeling less […]

Perhaps you’ve heard that sitting is the new smoking?  Sitting all day is not good for our health.  We’ve actually known this, from a public health perspective, for over 60 years. Back in the 50s, researchers studied men (yes, not much research done with women in those days) who had jobs that required them to […]

There is so much information online and elsewhere about fitness, health, and nutrition, it’s sometimes hard to know what to believe.  When you think about how news outlets report the news – with the most sensational tidbit as the headline – you really have to read the article, and sometimes the study from which the […]