Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Fitness, Health and Nutrition

Chat with Dr. Mirkin’s AI research assistant about health issues that are discussed on the site

Mild Dehydration Does Not Impair Exercise

Mild Dehydration Does Not Impair Exercise

There is no data anywhere to show that mild dehydration affects health or athletic performance. Fit humans can tolerate significant fluid loss before their performance suffers, and most cases of muscle cramps are not caused by dehydration or salt loss.

Lifestyle After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Lifestyle After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

It looks more and more as if prostate cancer is a metabolic disease that is influenced by your lifestyle. Extensive research has failed to show association between infections and prostate cancer risk, but following a healthful diet and lifestyle has been associated with reduced risk for the aggressive type of prostate cancer that can spread and kill.

Hank Williams and Spina Bifida

Hank Williams and Spina Bifida

Hank Williams was one of the America’s most influential singers and songwriters, with 11 number-one and 35 Top-10 songs on the Western Best Sellers list. In a recording career that lasted only six years, he wrote and performed classics we still hear today such as “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “Hey Good Lookin’,” “I Saw the Light”, “Cold, Cold Heart”, “Jambalaya” and many more.

Which Vegetable Oils Are Best?

Which Vegetable Oils Are Best?

Fats are classified by their chemical structures into saturated, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated types. The chemical stability of a fat is determined by its structure. All fats are made of carbon atoms held together by electrical bonds. These bonds can be single bonds that are stable and double bonds that are far less stable. The stability of a fat or oil depends on the number of double bonds between the carbon atoms. The more double bonds, the less stable the fat.

Hank Williams and Spina Bifida

Ron Lester and Morbid Obesity

Ron Lester was a Hollywood actor who became famous for playing Billy Bob, the 500-pound high school football player in the 1999 blockbuster movie, Varsity Blues. He also starred on the WB Television series Popular. At age 30, after his massive obesity had caused him to have four arthroscopic knee surgeries and two “mild” heart attacks, he had gastric bypass surgery and eventually lost 349 pounds, going from 508 pouns down to 159 pounds.

The Hidden Epidemic of Early Diabetes

The Hidden Epidemic of Early Diabetes

Many people with high blood sugar levels are told by their doctors that they do not have diabetes because their fasting blood sugar levels are below 100 mg/dl, which is considered normal. Early in the disease, diabetics often have a “normal” fasting blood sugar, but one hour after they eat, their blood sugar levels rise above 140, which signals that they are at increased risk for heart attacks, strokes, cancers, nerve damage and premature death.

Excess Weight Raises Cancer Risk

Excess Weight Raises Cancer Risk

The American Association for Cancer Research reports that being overweight is linked to 25 percent of cancers, and adding lack of exercise and eating pro-inflammatory foods raises the risk to 33 percent of newly diagnosed cancer cases in the U.S.

Osteoporosis and Diet

Osteoporosis and Diet

The Women’s Health Initiative showed that an inflammatory diet is associated with increased hip fracture rates in women ages 50 to 63 and an anti-inflammatory diet is associated with less bone density loss in this same group of postmenopausal women.

Which Vegetable Oils Are Best?

Pesticides

Many people who want to follow a high-plant diet are concerned about pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 20,000 farmers and their families are poisoned by pesticides each year, but no studies have shown pesticide poisoning from routine consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Hank Williams and Spina Bifida

Carol Purdie (Diana’s Mother) and The Fall of Singapore

February 15th is the anniversary of the Fall of Singapore in 1942. Many families have stories of their war heroes, and this is the story of Diana’s mother, Carol Brown Purdie, who survived on both fronts of World War II: The Blitz in England and the Japanese capture of Singapore. She never fully recovered from the trauma.