Health Matters With Paul Rosen

Why do we become more forgetful as we age?  The answer's not in your head.

If you think you and many others are more irritable, anxious or depressed during winter, you're not wrong.  Here's why.

The foods you buy every day are loaded with dangerous chemicals.  What are the alternatives?

Irritable?  Anxious?  Blue?  Hyperactive?   Chemicals in your body are making you that way, and your personal habits are making you worse. Plus, the dangers of Skittles.  

Toxic chemicals in cosmetics, cleaning products, soaps, detergents and even building materials are harming us every day.  The surprising solutions include cloth curtains and plants, as well as old school answers like vinegar and baking soda.

Washing your face or laundering your shirts can be unhealthy for your long-term health.

Frankenfoods, GMOs, GM seeds, transgenic crops: call them what you will, genetically-modified foods are everywhere in the food chain.  The dangers are proven.  Why, then, hasn't the FDA worked harder at regulation?  

The fact that our air and water are polluted by multiple contaminants from many sources is a given: industry, agriculture and even sewage systems are just a few of the origin points for air and water contamination. So how is this happening, and why haven't government regulatory agencies stepped up and stopped it?  

Yes, Americans are more overweight than ever, and the costs are measurable in cash.  The typical overweight consumer, in fact, spends hundreds more dollars in health care every year than his peers of healthy weight. But losing weight isn't just a matter of regulating calories and fat.  Even exercise isn't a magic cure. Only if you know the myths and truths of weight loss, and what's right for your individual situation, can you begin to make yourself healthier.

Yet another faddish health product is alkaline water, which contains less acid than tap water.  The theory is that there are health benefits to lower acid levels in the body. But it's not that simple.  Our bodies need minimum levels of acid to function properly.  If those levels are unbalanced, your health will suffer.   So how do you determine the right balances, and how do you make sure you have them?

Who doesn't want to feel better and live longer?  Who's willing to give up sugar immediately and abandon their other ingrained habits to make it happen? The answer to the first question is "everyone."  The answer to the second is...complicated.  But to get better, to get past medications, to stop treating symptoms and start addressing causes, we have to change the way we think about health.  Here's how to begin.

Why is it that more American consumers are suffering from obesity? If the Guiness Book of World Records is to be believed, the heaviest man who ever lived lost two-thirds of his body weight after being hospitalized.   If he can do that, why can't we at least cut down on desserts?  

Government agencies like the USDA and the FDA routinely cite studies about food and nutrition to guide our dietary choices. These studies often involve years of research, and they’re expensive, sometimes costing millions. But what if this government research isn’t financed by the government? The fact is, some of the studies meant to inform about us about food, beverages and alcohol are funded by the food, beverage and alcohol industries.

Few tout the health benefits of eating tires.  But the steel-belted radials on your car contain some of the same ingredients that go into your food.  One foodstuff is found not only in tires, but in cleaning products, industrial solvents, and many other places you're unlikely to seek nutritional value. Why is this food so ubiquitous, and if we want to avoid it, are there other, healthier substitutes?

As a child, the greatest American Olympian ever suffered from ADHD.  How did he work past all that?  The same way you can, and you can get started today.

An unhealthy immune system means your body is less able to fight invaders.  Infections and viruses can not only infiltrate your body, but hide out and spring back to action later, when your system is weak. The consequences can be serious. There are literally dozens of autoimmune diseases, and one serious misconception about all of them. 

Menopause isn't just for women.  Many of the same symptoms, the irritability, hot flashes and night sweats, are experienced by men of a certain age, just as they are for women.  And usually, the causes are the same, too. The solution?  Your diet.  Change what you eat, and you can make all those changes in your body changes for the better.

Sugar is so bad for us in so many ways, it's tough to create a comprehensive list.  Sugar's addictive properties are for real: if you crave it, it's because your body chemistry has been trained to pine for it.   The alternative?  Healthy, organic foods that sweeten your palate, enhance your diet, and don't turn you into an addict hungering for your next non-nutritional fix.

Every spring and summer, millions of Americans reach for medications they hope will help relieve the sneezing, hacking and pain of seasonal allergies.  Many are also convinced that if they can limit their exposure to pollen, they can control the extent of their allergic reactions. Not true.  Pollen's not the problem.  It's other things in our environment that are causing all the trouble.  And yes, we can manage our exposure to hazards and better control our allergies.

The very ground upon which we walk may be toxic, and more importantly, the soil in which our food is grown is toxic, too. Soil polluted by synthetic fertilizers and other pollutants produces foods that are deficient in nutrients and essential vitamins and minerals.  These deficiencies can't always be corrected by dietary supplements.   So how do we account for tainted soil that produces unhealthy food?