Too many patients ask me for a “sleeping pill”. These drugs are habit forming and over time lose their effectiveness. They also lead to poor sleep quality, drowsiness in the morning, amnesia etc. Others try self medicating with alcohol, marijuana or other over the counter “sleeping aids” like diphenhydramine (Benadryl). “Sleep hygeine” is the best…
Category: lifestyle
sleep well or die
Lack of sleep has been correlated with disease and death. It seems sleep deprivation modulates the autonomic tone and therefore leads to increase in risk of cardiac arrhythmias. The next study is quite interesting – either too much (>8 h per night) or too little (<7 h per night) of sleep increases mortality. It starts…
obesity and AFIB
Atrial fibrillation has a strong correlation with obesity. A study from Australia showed that if obese patients lost 10% of their weight, they had better outcomes. Another study shows the same. REVERSE-AF was a large, well publicised study with similar results. It seems that a lot of these studies come from Australia, where patients have…
not a good week for alcohol enthusiasts!!
This has not been a good week for “moderate” alcohol drinkers. There has been a barrage of articles which make me re-think what “moderate” alcohol intake is. Just 2 days ago I wrote this blog. Look at this BBC article. This was a half a million patient prospective Chinese study that indicated that if a…
alcohol = cigarettes??
How many cigarettes are there in a bottle of alcohol? A recent study showed that drinking equivalent of 1 bottle of wine per week (4 drinks) increased risk of cancer in women and in men. The overall absolute increase in cancer risk for one bottle of wine per week equals that of five (men) or…
walking by the minutes
I am passionate about walking. If walking can help gain India’s independence, it surely can help you achieve freedom from a lot of diseases Walking might be the best exercise there is – low to no risk of injury (unless you are walking on the Boulder Creek Path 🙂 ), can be done with any…
one drink per day, no more
This is according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES), a large, decade-long study led by the Centers for Disease Control. More than 17,000 adults were followed for more than a decade. Full study here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190307081024.htm
run for your life – overexercisers beware
An excellent TED Talk by cardiologist Dr. James O’Keefe regarding the dangers of too much exercise.
sugar, the bitter truth
This is an interesting talk by Dr. Robert Lustig, endocrinologist at UCSF If you don’t want to sit through a 90 minute video, here is a condensed 30 minute version: