Is it true that sleeping more than eight hours a night hastens your demise? People certainly think so. Several years ago a national TV news reporter asked me if it was true, because after working shifts “I go home and sleep for ten or more hours, will that shorten my life?” A recent article in Journal of […]
Eat Food, Not Vitamins
“Do you take vitamins?” “No,” I answer my patients. “Why not? Aren’t they good for you?” The nuanced answer to that remains no. A truthful answer might be “when it’s been shown you need them.” Most Americans are not vitamin deficient. There is evidence that vitamins can be harmful, not helpful. And what generally gets […]
Recovering Lost Sleep
The American Sleep Disorders Association recommends American adults get seven or more hours of sleep each night. Many don’t. Between work, children, cellphones, aging parents, more work, illness and overall stress, lots of folks get a whole lot less sleep than they want. They need sleep recovery. So they sleep in over the weekends, or […]
Stress, Overeating, and Sleep
Stress makes you sleepless. Insomnia makes you hungry, especially ravenous for fat and sugar. You eat more, gain weight, get more stressed. Then repeat. When expectations exceed realities stress becomes one’s constant companion. The plane flight to see your ailing mother is delayed, then cancelled. Your kid forgets his homework and you can’t leave work […]
The New Canaries in Our Coal Mine
Insects and Canaries People hate insects. They bite, snap, sting, and kill. Perhaps the most hated animal on the planet is the mosquito, despised for bringing malaria, dengue fever, sleeping sickness and a host of other fatal and disfiguring diseases. The most frightening sci-fi film monsters from “Alien” to “Starship Troopers” are giant, intelligent insectoids. […]