[COLUMN] 12 food myths
MYTHS abouts food, other matters, fake news, and other mis- and disinformation abound in social media. What a waste of a wonderful, valuable technological advance in communication! In this column…
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[COLUMN] News Capsules
SWEETENERS dilemma Artificial sugars or sweeteners are very popular. Questions about their safety with long-term use still float around. The claim that Saccharin caused cancer years ago was debunked. From…
[COLUMN] XBB.1.5 is kraken!
WHEN it comes to diseases, especially contagious ones, prevention is the best strategy to avoid infection and transmission to others. And the best preventive tool we have is the vaccine,…
[COLUMN] Coffee: Benefits and Risks
COFFEE, the waker-upper for 75 percent of adults in America, has been shown to have health benefits and also a risk among those who have severe hypertension for those who…
[COLUMN] Damage control
THE holidays may be behind us but their collateral health effects, among others, will linger a while. Medically speaking, it is actually a time for “damage control” for those of…
[COLUMN] The departure lounge
AS we bid goodbye to 2022, the infamous year of this COVID-19 devastating pandemic and preparing to welcome a more hopeful and brighter new year of 2023, it reminds me…
[COLUMN] Weight loss ‘cures’ diabetes
OBESITY has been known to be a major risk for the development of diabetes mellitus Type2 (DMT2) for decades. Being overweight not only increases the risk for diabetes but also…
[COLUMN] D3 and the brain
STUDIES have shown that the body relies on vitamin D to stave off heart disease, inflammation and even cancer. People with deficient vitamin D in their body are associated with…
[COLUMN] The California Surge
THIS is a warning, not only for Californians but for residents of other states where COVID-19 is still significant. The national 7-day daily average of cases, as of December 6,…
[COLUMN] Overlap Syndrome
NOT a well-known entity even to many physicians is the Overlap Syndrome. One example of this is the combination of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea),…
[COLUMN] Lockdown too late
GUANGZHOU, one of China’s largest and busiest cities, is locking down as it battles a major outbreak of COVID-19. Lockdowns are truly effective and less cumbersome, a lot simpler to…
[COLUMN] Tripledemic
YES, three different viruses, not only the Three Kings, are expected to visit us this coming Christmas season. This is predicted to be a winter of tripledemic. The three viruses…
[COLUMN] New COVID surge
BRACE yourself. A new surge in COVID-19 is expected this fall and winter as the new Omicron sub-variants, BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7, are evolving as the dominant strains infecting people…
[COLUMN] ‘SuperAgers’
RESEARCHERS studied autopsy findings on 24 brains, 5 of them people called “SuperAgers,” those who are 80 and over. I refer to them as “TeenAged,” individuals whose cognitive ability, alertness,…
[COLUMN] Health tips
EXPERTS predict that while the United States was basically spared from influenza the past two years, the lower flu vaccination rate that resulted in low levels of immunity and the…
[COLUMN] BA.4.6, BF.7 are here!
AS we lower our guard against COVID-19 because cases are decreasing, unvaccinated individuals, the prime target of the coronavirus, are becoming incubators (where the virus replicates, mutates) and carriers/spreaders churning…
[COLUMN] RP calamity
16PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. declared an extension of the state of calamity which former president Rodrigo Duterte initially proclaimed two years ago (in March 2020), in view of the rising…
[COLUMN] News capsules
THE average life expectancy in the United States “dropped for a second straight year from 2020 to 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic once again playing an outsize role in the…
[COLUMN] Health news
STEM cell embryo Neuroscience news revealed that researchers headed by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Professor of Mammalian Development and Stem Cell Biology from the University of Cambridge, “have created model embryos from…
[COLUMN] Lessons from COVID
FAKE news Fake news, downright lies, mis- and disinformation, in various media, especially social media, have conceivably caused hundreds of million COVID-19 infections and deaths around the world. The falsehood…
[COLUMN] Polio in NYC
THE Polio virus was detected in the sewage system in New York City, a discovery that signals this dangerous virus has been spreading locally. Poliomyelitis (Polio) is a contagious, disabling,…
[COLUMN] On power nap, COVID
COVID still kills As of 10:28 AM (EST), Tuesday, July 26, 2022, the total global COVID-19 cases stood at 576,333,448 and 6,405,539 deaths. The numbers for the U.S. were at…
[COLUMN] UVC light vs COVID
UVC light is a popular disinfectant for air, water, and nonporous surfaces. It has been used for decades to reduce the spread of bacteria (like tuberculosis) and various viruses. UVC…
[COLUMN] Here we go again!
CORONAVIRUSES are single-strained RNA viruses with large genomes, of which there were two. In late 2019, in Wuhan, China, a third “novel” (new) coronavirus emerged, identified as SARS-CoV2, which started…
[COLUMN] Wonders of tea
TEA, the second most favorite beverage in the world after water, has always been considered a healthy drink. A recent worldwide symposium of leading scientists in the field of tea…
[COLUMN] Med-tip capsules
MELATONIN worsens asthma New studies revealed that the popular sleep hormone, melatonin, worsens attacks among asthmatic patients. Melatonin is sold over the counter and is an ingredient in many sleep…
[COLUMN] Second booster
THE United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended the second booster (Shot #4) for COVID-19 for those immunocompromised and people ages 50 and older. The second…
[COLUMN] Sweeteners and cancer
NEW large-scale studies found that a high intake of artificial sweeteners (particularly aspartame and acesulfame-K, the most used ones worldwide) is linked to a 13 percent increased risk of cancer…
[COLUMN] Unhealthy drinks
WATER is vital to life. Without water, there won’t be life as we know it on earth. Our body is 50-75 percent water, averaging around 57 to 65 percent. Infants…
[COLUMN] COVID-19, Putin-22
AS the pandemic continues to infect and kill people in the United States and around the world, Ukraine is ravaged not only by COVID-19 but by Russia’s Putin-22, a modern-day…