easy-heal

On the Gulf Coast of Florida where I live, the telltale sign of summer is not an influx of beachcombers, afternoon storms that arrive exactly at 2 p.m., or the first hurricane warning, but the appearance of hundreds of paddleboarders dotting the inlet waters. From afar, paddleboarding looks almost spiritual — people standing on nearly […]

If you are trying to cut back on added sugar — and you should, because excess sugar increases risks for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease — you might be tempted by products advertised as low sugar, no sugar, or sugar-free. Many contain familiar low-calorie sugar substitutes like aspartame or sucralose instead of sugar. And as […]

Pop quiz: what is Salmonella? If you’ve ever had a run-in with this bacteria, you know it can cause a food-borne illness called salmonellosis, a form of food poisoning. But you may not know that Salmonella bacteria sicken an estimated 1.35 million people and hospitalize 26,500 every year in the United States. What’s more, it […]

When a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test produces an abnormal result, the next step is usually a prostate biopsy. A biopsy can confirm or rule out a cancer diagnosis, but it also has certain drawbacks. Prostate biopsies are invasive procedures with potential side effects, and they often detect low-grade, slow-growing tumors that may not need […]

Want your child to grow up healthy, happy, smart, capable, and resilient? Play with them. Infants and toddlers thrive on playful games that change as they grow. Why does play matter during the first few years of life? More than a million new nerve connections are made in the brain in the first few years […]

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) teaches people to challenge negative thought patterns and turn less often to unhelpful behaviors. These strategies can improve your mood and the way you respond to challenging situations: a flat tire, looming deadlines, family life ups and downs. Yet there’s much more depth and nuance to this well-researched form of psychotherapy. […]

Need a little motivation and structure to ramp up your walking routine? Want to wake up your workouts but not quite ready for a mud run? Consider trying a couch-to-5K program. Dr. Adam Tenforde, medical director of the Spaulding National Running Center at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and a sports medicine physician at Mass General […]

When cancer patients are treated with radiation, it’s possible that the therapy itself may cause new tumors to form in the body later. Radiation kills cancer cells by damaging their DNA, but if the treatments cause genetic damage to normal cells near the radiation target, there’s a small risk that these secondary malignancies may arise […]

As wildfires become more frequent due to climate change and drier conditions, more of us and more of our communities are at risk for harm. Here is information to help you prepare and protect yourself and your family. How does wildfire smoke affect air quality? Wildfire smoke contributes greatly to poor air quality. Just like […]

Here’s a new fact about spring, summer, fall, and sometimes even winter: now that climate change has blurred seasonal boundaries, sizzling heat may be on the way, or currently blanketing your community. High temperatures stress the body, leading to thousands of heat-related illnesses and deaths every year in the US. Creating a personal heat plan […]