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…

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…

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…

In parts of the United States and Canada, warming temperatures driven by climate change may be contributing to a rise in tick-borne illnesses. Ticks are now thriving in a wider geographic range, and appearing earlier and sticking around later in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall. That means we need to stay vigilant about…

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…

You’re in a doctor’s office with a clipboard and a pile of medical forms on your lap. For the umpteenth time, you must now jot down your medical history — conditions, ongoing symptoms, past procedures, current medications, and even the health of family members. But how much information should you include? Which details are most…

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…

Social media has a way of making the ho-hum seem fresh and novel. Case in point: exfoliation, the process of removing dead cells from the skin’s outer layer. Anyone scrolling through TikTok lately might be convinced this longtime skin care approach can transform something old — let’s say our aging epidermis — into like-new skin.…

An F may mean failure in school, but the letter earns high marks in your diet. The two biggest dietary Fs — fiber and fermented foods — are top priorities to help maintain healthy digestion, and they potentially offer much more. How can you fit these nutrients into meals? Can this help your overall health…

Before the pandemic, talking to a therapist or psychiatrist on a video call was novel. Now it’s fairly common. One recent analysis, for example, found that video appointments within the massive Veterans Affairs Health Care System jumped from about 2% of all mental health care encounters in January 2019 to 35% of these encounters in…