Black peer support: A role in mental health recovery

It’s been a troubling year for millions of Americans, marked by public reckonings over inequities in justice, health care, and most certainly mental health care. None of these inequities are new. Estimates suggest that only 22% of Black Americans — fewer than one in four — who need mental health care actually receive treatment. In […]
What’s new in the updated asthma guidelines?

In 2007, The Sopranos was a hit TV show, patterned jeggings were a fashion trend, and the National Institutes of Health–sponsored National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) published the second edition of the Asthma Management Guidelines. A lot has changed since 2007, including in the area of asthma. The NAEPP recently published the third […]
Do vitamin D, zinc, and other supplements help prevent COVID-19 or hasten healing?

The appeal of safe, natural treatments is undeniable. It’s true for age-old conditions such as the common cold, and for new diseases, especially if they have no known cure. So it makes sense that there would be a lot of interest in supplements for COVID-19, whether as prevention or treatment. Indeed, zinc, melatonin, vitamin C, […]
An emerging treatment option for men with recurring prostate cancer after radiation therapy – Harvard Health Blog

Prostate cancer is often a multifocal disease, meaning that several tumors can be present in different parts of gland at the same time. Not all of these tumors are equally problematic, however. And it’s increasingly thought that the tumor with the most aggressive features — called the index lesion — dictates how a man’s cancer […]
Can fitness counter fatness?

In a recent study, researchers attempted to answer the very question posed in the title of this post. Before delving into the findings of this study and how it fits with what we already know about this topic, let’s define some key terms. What do we mean by fitness and fatness? Fitness, also referred to […]
Summer camp: What parents need to know this year

It’s time to make summer plans, and for many families, those plans include summer camp. After the year we’ve had, the idea of getting out of the house, being active, and seeing other children sounds very appealing. While there is reason to hope that this summer will be better than 2020, the reality is that […]
Harvard Health Ad Watch: Mitochondria do a lot for you — what can you do for them?

Ever see an ad for a product that sounds awesome and wondered if it was really that good? That happened to me recently. “How are you taking care of your mitochondria?” an announcer asked. Well, there’s a question I’m not asked every day. And it’s one for which I had no answer. Your cells are […]
Simple, low-cost, low-tech brain training

We’re all looking for ways to boost our brain power. And fortunately, there are plenty of simple, low-cost, low-tech ways to help sharpen cognition. “Low-tech, mentally stimulating activities, especially ones that are challenging, help our brains create new connections. The more connections we have, the more paths our brain has to get information to where […]
School reopening? What parents need to know and can do

It’s amazing how something as ordinary as going to school can become frightening and overwhelming during a pandemic. While some children have been attending school throughout the pandemic, most have been learning remotely, or in a hybrid model of some remote and some in person. As we pass the one-year mark, it has become increasingly […]
Fully vaccinated against COVID-19? So, what can you safely do?

Congrats on getting your COVID-19 vaccine! You qualify as fully vaccinated two weeks after your second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, or two weeks after your single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Maybe you’re wondering what you can safely do […]