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

Neil Armstrong’s Bypass Surgery

Neil Armstrong’s Bypass Surgery

Neil Armstrong was a great American hero who:  • flew 78 combat missions as a Korean War military pilot,  • was a test pilot for new planes, and  • was the 1966 spacecraft commander for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar mission. On July...

LDL Cholesterol Can Be Too Low

A study of more than 100,000 healthy Chinese citizens followed for nine years showed that having very low levels of LDL cholesterol (<70 mg/dl) is associated with increased risk for bleeding into the brain, and the lower the LDL, the greater the risk (Neurology,...

High Protein Diets May Increase Heart Attack Risk

The Paleo diet and other high-protein diets may be among the more harmful popular diets recommended for weight loss because they: • raise blood levels of TMAO, a marker for increased heart attack risk (European Journal of Nutrition, July 5, 2019:1–14), and • fail to...

Jim Bouton and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

Jim Bouton and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

Jim Bouton was not good enough to play on his high school baseball team but ended up as a professional All-Star baseball pitcher with the New York Yankees who won both of his starts in the 1964 World Series.  He was also a best-selling author, movie actor, and...

Alma Mahler, Muse to Many

Alma Mahler, Muse to Many

Alma Schindler Mahler is famous for marrying and having affairs with some of the most brilliant and accomplished men of the 20th century. She was a composer, sculptor and writer who wanted to be famous for her own intellectual creations, but she lived at a time when it was extremely difficult for women to be prominent in the arts. She took the next best approach by marrying and loving some of the leading musicians, composers, architects, painters and writers of the era.

New Studies on Fatty Liver

A liver full of fat can be caused by anything that damages the liver. Doctors used to separate liver damage into that caused by alcohol and that not caused by alcohol (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD). Now we know that a liver damaged by excess alcohol has...

Dementia Risk May Be Increased by Some Common Drugs

Dementia Risk May Be Increased by Some Common Drugs

A study of 58,769 patients over 55 years of age diagnosed with dementia and 225,574 people of the same age without dementia found a 50 percent increased risk of dementia among people who used a strong anticholinergic drug daily for about three years within the 10-year study period

Jared Lorenzen and the Perils of Obesity

Jared Lorenzen and the Perils of Obesity

Jared Lorenzen was arguably one of the greatest high school athletes ever.  At Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, he was the football quarterback who led his team to a four-year 41-2 won/loss record, passed for 6,822 yards and had 89 career touchdown...