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

Cellulite

Cellulite

Women pay millions of dollars for products that are supposed to get rid of cellulite, but there is no such thing as cellulite. The fat on a woman’s hips and thighs is the same as the fat anywhere else. She has skin on the outside, fat in the middle and muscles and fascia underneath the fat.

Chronic Prostatitis Can Be Cured

Chronic Prostatitis Can Be Cured

Prostate infections are extremely difficult to diagnose and treat because many doctors do not order the right tests and even when they make the correct diagnosis, they often fail to treat the condition long enough or they fail to treat infected partners.

New Dietary Guidelines

New Dietary Guidelines

the Dietary Guidelines issued in January 2016 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services recommend * restricting sugar, salt, saturated fat, and trans fats, and eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and low-fat foods. The recommendation to eat lean meat has caused the most criticism by scientists.

David Bowie’s Liver Cancer

David Bowie died on January 10, 2016, of liver cancer just two days after his 69th birthday. Popular musicians have lifestyles laden with risk factors for liver cancer, heart attacks and other causes of premature death: drugs, heavy smoking, alcohol, and crazy schedules that make it impossible to eat healthfully, exercise or sleep regularly.

Early Life

How to Keep Your Maximum Heart Rate Up as You Age

How to Keep Your Maximum Heart Rate Up as You Age

Your maximum heart rate is the fastest your heart can beat and still pump blood effectively through your body. As you age, your maximum heart rate drops. This means that your heart is weaker and more susceptible to damage, and you can’t exercise as fast over distance as you could when you were younger.

More Links Between Cancers and Sugar

More Links Between Cancers and Sugar

The evidence is getting stronger that taking in too much sugar increases your risk for cancers as well as for heart attacks, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. A study from M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston shows how sugar may cause cancers to start and then to spread to other parts of the body (Cancer Research, Jan. 1, 2016).

Natalie Cole and Hepatitis C

How would your life have turned out if you: • were the daughter of music legend Nat King Cole and famous singer Maria Hawkins Ellington, • were raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles, • were surrounded by incredible wealth (in a family called "the...

Exercise for Osteoarthritis

Exercise for Osteoarthritis

Strengthening leg muscles helps to control pain in osteoarthritic knees. Isometric and range-of-motion strength programs help to control pain and increase range of motion in people who have osteoarthritis. The patients had less pain on moving their knees and were able to perform motor tasks faster.

How to Keep Your Maximum Heart Rate Up as You Age

How to Keep Running as You Age

I do not run anymore and virtually all of the runners who ran with me in the 1940s through 1960s don’t run either, mostly because of the very high rate of running injuries. Eighty percent of long-distance runners suffer injuries that force them to take time off from running each year.

Hidden Sugars

The average North American takes in 150 to 200 pounds of sugar a year. Most of your sugar intake comes from added sugars in drinks and packaged, frozen and canned foods that you buy in grocery stores or eat in restaurants. More than 75 percent of the packaged foods in your grocery store have added sugar in them. Many of these foods do not taste particularly sweet, so you don’t even realize that you are eating sugars.