Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vowing To Improve Your Health In 2019? These Less Common Ways Might Help More Than Quick Weight Loss
PBS NewsHour: Forget The Crash Diet. These 6 New Year’s Resolutions Are Better For Your Health
The new year is officially here and with it, millions of resolutions. Forty-four percent of Americans say they will take on a resolution this year, many with health conscious goals in mind. But some resolutions are better for your overall health than others. (Griffin, 1/1)
The Associated Press: Low Carb? Low Fat? What The Latest Dieting Studies Tell Us
Bacon and black coffee for breakfast, or oatmeal and bananas? If you're planning to try to lose weight in 2019, you're sure to find a fierce debate online and among friends and family about how best to do it. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and new fads emerge every year. (1/1)
The Wall Street Journal: The Dry January Effect
Bottoms down: It’s Dry January. For Heather Molnar that means holding the gin in her gin and tonic for the rest of the month and substituting that end-of-day glass of wine with kombucha. “I like to put it in a wine glass or something fancy,” says Ms. Molnar, a 46-year-old content strategist who lives in Morris Plains, N.J. (Reddy, 1/1)
The New York Times: Moderate Drinking May Benefit Heart Failure Patients
Patients with heart failure may live longer if they have a few alcoholic drinks a week, a new study suggests. Studies on the effect of alcohol on the risk of heart failure have had mixed results, with some suggesting an increased risk with more than about seven drinks a week. But this is the first study to look at drinking after a heart failure diagnosis. (Bakalar, 12/28)
The New York Times: HDL Cholesterol: Too Much Of A Good Thing?
I used to be thrilled that my blood level of HDL cholesterol, the so-called good cholesterol, was high, the likely result of my devotion to daily physical activity. After all, HDL, for high-density lipoprotein, acts like an arterial cleanser, removing cholesterol from blood vessels and preparing it for removal outside the body. An ample supply of HDL cholesterol in blood serum has long been linked to protection against coronary heart disease and stroke, so what could be bad? (Brody, 12/24)
The New York Times: Heart Attack May Be Early Sign Of Cancer
A heart attack or stroke may be an early sign of cancer. Researchers studied records of 374,331 Medicare beneficiaries, mean age 76, who were given cancer diagnoses from 2005 to 2013. They matched them with an equal number of controls without cancer. Then they retrospectively tracked heart attacks and strokes in the two groups in the year before the cancer diagnosis. (Bakalar, 12/21)
The Wall Street Journal: Mount Sinai Sees Appetite For Dietitian-Designed Meal Services
For people suffering from serious digestive diseases, a simple meal can sometimes have debilitating physical effects. To help these patients, Mount Sinai Health System is boosting an investment in a food company that aims to make eating easier. The investment by Mount Sinai’s venture fund, the third in two years, is for Epicured, a two-year-old New York-based company that provides fully prepared, dietitian-designed fresh meals for about 1,000 customers. (West, 12/27)
The New York Times: Stand More, Lounge Less? Don’t Do It To Lose Weight
For those of us who have resolved to stand more and sit less in the coming year, a new study might temper some of our expectations of the benefits. It finds that people burn more calories when they stand than when sitting or lying down, but the increase is smaller than many of us might hope. For those of us who overindulged and slacked off on our exercise regimens over the holidays, it also means that being upright is unlikely to help us lose weight. (Reynolds, 1/2)
NPR: Is Cold Weather Exercise Healthier?
When Scott Carney first saw the photo of a nearly naked man sitting comfortably on a glacier in the frigid cold, he was skeptical. The man — Wim Hof — is a Dutch athlete who claims to control his body temperature in extreme cold through sheer force of will. Exercising in the cold, Hof argues, makes people healthier. (Chisholm, 1/1)
Los Angeles Times: Here’s Your 2019 Fitness Inspiration: She’s 95 And Is Doing The Splits
Phyllis Sues has never exactly rushed into things. She launched a business at 50 and became a trapeze enthusiast at 75. At 85, she took her first yoga lesson, got into tango dancing shortly after, and jumped out of a plane at 90. (Daswani, 12/28)
