Amid All The Buzzy Health Trends, What’s A Scam And What’s Worth Paying Attention To?

The New York Times: What Are The Benefits Of CBD?
The CBD industry is flourishing, conservatively projected to hit $16 billion in the United States by 2025. Already, the plant extract is being added to cheeseburgers, toothpicks and breath sprays. More than 60 percent of CBD users have taken it for anxiety, according to a survey of 5,000 people, conducted by the Brightfield Group, a cannabis market research firm. Chronic pain, insomnia and depression follow behind. Kim Kardashian West, for example, turned to the product when “freaking out” over the birth of her fourth baby. The professional golfer Bubba Watson drifts off to sleep with it. And Martha Stewart’s French bulldog partakes, too. (MacKeen, 10/16)

The New York Times: What Are The Benefits Of Turmeric?
Have you noticed lattes, ice cream and smoothies with a tawny hue? That could be a sign of a not-so-secret ingredient: turmeric. The botanical is omnipresent in health food aisles, in the form of pills and powders. Turmeric, native to South Asia, is one of the fastest-growing dietary supplements. In 2018 products racked up an estimated $328 million in sales in the United States, a more than sevenfold increase from a decade earlier, according to a report from Nutrition Business Journal. (MacKeen, 10/16)

The New York Times: Is Celery Juice A Sham?
Celery juice has been seemingly everywhere: The murky green potion looks like water from an algae-filled pond, yet its disciples have been downing it by the glassful.  Yes, that staid crunchy workhorse usually smeared with peanut butter has gone to the top of the vegetable cart. (MacKeen, 10/16)

The New York Times: Are There Benefits To Drinking Kombucha?
Kombucha is a fermented food, much like cultured yogurt, cheese, kefir, kimchi and sauerkraut. Traditionally a carbonated drink with live micro-organisms, kombucha is made by brewing together sugar, black or green tea, liquid from a previous batch and the Scoby, short for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (though its more popular nickname is “mother,” since it reproduces during fermentation). (MacKeen, 10/16)

NPR: How Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick The Habit
Carine Chen-McLaughlin smoked for more than 40 years. She didn't want to be a smoker. She'd tried to stop dozens of times over the decades. But she always came back. Smoking was "one of my oldest, dearest friends," she said of her habit. "To not have that relationship was very, very scary." (Sofia and Brumfiel, 10/15)

Stat: Ancestry Launches Consumer Genetics Tests For Health
Ancestry, the consumer genetics company that has until now focused on helping people understand their family history, on Tuesday revealed new products that will allow consumers to get health information based on their DNA results — putting it in direct competition with 23andMe. Ancestry has chosen a very different strategy than its rival. Unlike 23andMe tests, which are ordered by consumers, AncestryHealth products will be ordered by a physician who works for PWNHealth, a New York-based national network of doctors that says on its website that its mission is “to enable safe and easy access to diagnostic testing.” Access to professional genetic counselors, also from PWNHealth, will be included in the purchase price, which will be as low as $49. (Herper, 10/15)

Boston Globe: Harvard Study Spotlights Growing Inequality Among Older Americans
A new Harvard study shows the inequality of wealth and opportunity that has become a stubborn feature of American life is being entrenched in the oldest segment of society. Recent income gains — from investments, property appreciation, and retirement income — have gone disproportionately to the highest earners in the 65-and-older age group, while the number of older households burdened by housing costs has reached an all-time high, according to the report by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. (Weisman, 10/16)

NPR: DNA Sequencing And Rare Disease Cold Cases
When Alex Yiu was born 14 years ago, he seemed like a typical healthy kid. But when he turned 2, his mother Caroline Cheung-Yiu started noticing things that were amiss — first little problems, then much bigger ones. As Alex's health slowly deteriorated, Caroline and her husband, Bandy Yiu, set off on what's become known among families like theirs as a "diagnostic odyssey." This ended up being a 12-year quest that ended after a lucky accident. (Harris, 10/16)

The New York Times: Exercise Advice For Surviving Cancer, And Maybe Avoiding It
Even a little exercise may help people avoid and survive many types of cancer, according to new exercise guidelines released today that focus on how exercise affects cancer outcomes. The guidelines, issued jointly by the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Cancer Society and 15 other international organizations, update almost decade-old recommendations with new science and specific advice about how much and what types of exercise may be the most needed, helpful and tolerable for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis. (Reynolds, 10/16)