ANOTHER REASON TO GET YOUR ANNUAL COVID SHOT A vaccine that can protect you from severe disease already exists: It’s the updated COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. A new study shows that receiving the latest version significantly reduces the risk of severe disease and death across all age groups—even for people who already have some immunity from prior infection or earlier shots.. If you’ve been debating whether to get the next annual vaccine, this new evidence offers a clear answer: Yes. Schedule your appointment at your local pharmacy as soon as possible. Below, find excerpts from the October 21, 2025 MedicalHerald.com article...
WALK FASTER TO MAKE EVERY STEP COUNT I often write about the benefits of walking, since for many of us seniors it remains our most reliable and enjoyable form of exercise. In my December 1, 2024 post, Maximize Your Walk, I shared practical tips for getting the most out of your daily routine. What I didn’t cover in detail, though, was how to turn it into a fast walking workout. Today I came across a Harvard Medical School article that reinforces some of those earlier tips while offering excellent advice on how to make fast walking a genuine cardiovascular workout....
SLEEPING IN WON’T FIX LOST SLEEP When I was a teenager, I envied my friends who could “sleep in” on the weekends. I didn’t have that luxury. From age twelve until my seventeenth birthday, I had a morning paper route. Every day—including Saturdays and Sundays—I was up at 5 a.m., folding papers, loading them into the bags on my bike, and pedaling through the neighborhood to finish deliveries by six. Once I got to college, I finally discovered the joy of staying up past midnight for several nights and then sleeping in on weekends until ten. At that age, it...
BIOFEEDBACK—HOW IT WORKS When I attended health fairs in the past, I often came across booths featuring biofeedback devices. Exhibitors would invite visitors to try a brief session—measuring things like heart-rate variability or breath control—to demonstrate how the technology worked. I joined in a few times just for fun, but I never seriously explored it as a way to manage bodily functions. Recently though, I’ve noticed more articles from respected sources like the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School recommending biofeedback, particularly for pain relief. I selected one in particular because it’s concise yet informative, providing a practical introduction to...
THE LINK BETWEEN LITHIUM & ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Over the past week, I’ve come across several articles discussing a new Harvard Medical School study showing that lithium is vital for healthy brain function and may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease. For the hundreds of millions of people affected worldwide, this discovery could be groundbreaking—lithium may be the missing link in understanding and treating Alzheimer’s. Below are key takeaways from the August 28, 2025 PBS News article, 4 things to know about a new study on lithium and Alzheimer’s disease. The Harvard Study Led by Dr. Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics and...
CAN YOU HEAD OFF AGING WITH VITAMIN D? I first wrote about vitamin D seven years ago, highlighting its role in building strong bones and lowering the risk of chronic disease (The Vitamin D Riddle). Realizing its importance, I increased my own intake from 800 to 4,000 IU daily. Today, I opened my latest issue of the Harvard Health Letter and found an intriguing update: vitamin D may also help slow aging by protecting our telomeres—the protective caps on our chromosomes—from shortening. Let me now share highlights from the September 1, 2025, article by Anthony L. Komaroff, MD, Editor in Chief,...
MOHS SURGERY: WHAT TO KNOW If you’ve been diagnosed with certain types of skin cancer, your doctor may recommend Mohs surgery. This highly precise procedure removes cancer in thin layers, examining each under a microscope until only healthy tissue remains. The goal is to eliminate all cancer cells while preserving as much healthy skin as possible. This approach offers the highest cure rates, minimizes scarring, and usually avoids the need for additional treatments—making it ideal for delicate or highly visible areas like the face, ears, and hands. I recently underwent Mohs surgery for a growth on my cheek and was...
OPTIMISTS VS. PESSIMISTS REVISITED I probably wouldn’t have clicked on the Scientific American article if it hadn’t opened with the line: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”—the famous first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. That novel happens to be one of my favorites; I’ve read all 800-plus pages of it—twice. Although it opens with a nod to Tolstoy, the article isn’t about him or his novel. Instead, it explores how optimists and pessimists think in fundamentally different ways. I wrote on this theme back in May in my post Boost Your...
DON’T TOSS IT YET! WHICH FOOD EXPIRATION DATES REALLY MATTER Most of us know that food expiration dates aren’t especially valid and have little to do with safety—but more to do with manufacturers and grocery stores wishing to sell more of their products. I posted four years ago about this practice (Most Food Expiration Dates Are Bogus). Now, I wanted to dig deeper: Which foods truly spoil—and when should we be concerned? A January 24, 2023, New York Times article by J. Kenji López-Alt, titled The Food Expiration Dates You Should Actually Follow, offers valuable guidance. Here are takeaways from...
AI MAY HELP US FIND A CURE FOR ALZHEIMER’S I’ve been seeing more and more reports about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming medical diagnosis. It’s now helping detect diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions by analyzing medical images—such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans—and by reviewing biopsy slides, often faster and more accurately than human experts. As someone always on the lookout for the latest research on treating Alzheimer’s disease—especially to share with my fellow seniors—I was intrigued by a July 1, 2025 article in the Harvard Health Letter written by Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff, Editor in Chief,...
