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Tuesday: Health

Urology Pearls: A diet for healthier aging

What good is living a long life if it is riddled with disease and disability? And what can you do to age well? These questions are at the center of a new way of thinking about aging: instead of focusing on the number of years a person lives and the prevention of particular diseases—such as heart disease, stroke, or dementia—the attention has shifted to promoting healthy aging with preserved functionality and a high quality of life. Can eating certain food items or adhering to a particular dietary pattern help achieve these goals? In an article published in Nature Medicine on March ...

Health Matters: Ball of foot pain sometimes a mystery

There is an abundance of unexplained medical conditions in the world, although our understanding has advanced tremendously. There is much we don’t know about the human body and don’t let anyone pretend otherwise. How about an explanation for “Stiff Person Syndrome” or Morgellon’s with the strange skin fibers? We don’t even understand something as common as migraine headaches. Schizophrenia and many disorders of the brain remain a mystery. How about the one where an adolescent suddenly develops pain in the ball of the foot for no reason and without injury? In the disease ...

CDC officials plan for the agency’s splintering, but questions remain

NEW YORK — A top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told staff this week to start planning for the agency’s splintering. Several parts of CDC — mostly those devoted to health threats that aren’t infectious — are being spun off into the soon-to-be-created ...

Michigan veterans worry about federal cuts, health care access

MARQUETTE — “When I first filed a claim with the VA, it took years to go through because of staffing shortages,” said Tim Keenan, the president of the Northern Michigan Veterans for Peace chapter. “That changed over the years. It’s a lot faster than what it used to be, but I’m ...

Talk with the Doc

Because it is so important to our health that we all avoid dehydration, let me again review the many health benefits of consuming enough fluids every day. Water is the principal fluid in the human body and makes up about 60 percent of the body weight of an adult. Every system in our body needs water to function properly. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to our cells and provides a healthy moist environment for our entire body, including our lungs, muscles, eyes, ears, mouth, throat, digestive system, and nearly all body tissues. Certainly, a ...

Health matters

Some years ago, a beat cop patrolling our streets was called a flatfoot. Was this because they developed a flattened foot from walking the pavement all day? That particular variation on human anatomy used to be sufficient to keep someone out of the military. And yet, Walter Payton, the famous football player, had flat feet and it certainly didn’t stop him. How bad can it be to have a flatter foot type? Human variability is legendary. In many respects, we are all different, especially in how our bodies are shaped and how well all the bones and joints, ligaments and tendons, all work ...