How Not to Die: An Animated Summary
We have tremendous power over our health destiny and longevity.
We have tremendous power over our health destiny and longevity.
Sun exposure is associated with lower rates of 15 different cancers and improved cancer survival. What happened when vitamin D supplements were put to the test?
How might we prevent and reverse hypertension, the number-one risk factor for death in the world?
As many as 37 percent of human breast cancer cases may be attributable to exposure to bovine leukemia virus.
Type 2 diabetes can be prevented, arrested, and even reversed with a healthy enough diet.
The majority of U.S. dairy herds are infected with a cancer-causing virus, but until recently, human testing for exposure was not sufficiently sensitive.
What happens when we put cancer on a plant-based diet?
Lifestyle approaches aren’t only safer and cheaper—they can work better, because they let us treat the actual cause of the disease.
What is the evidence that all pregnant women should follow the American Thyroid Association’s recommendation to take a daily iodine supplement?
What is the optimal source and amount of protein for senior citizens?
Only about 1 in 10,000 people live to be 100 years old. What’s their secret?
What can our nutrient requirements, metabolism, and physiology tell us about what we should be eating?
Despite less education on average, a higher poverty rate, and more limited access to health care, U.S. Hispanics tend to live the longest. Why?
How extreme was Dr. Kempner’s rice diet compared to traditional surgical approaches? Is there a safer alternative?
We don’t have to choose between the lesser of two evils: skin cancer versus internal cancers from vitamin D deficiency.
Why do some recommend thousands of units of supplemental vitamin D when the Institute of Medicine set the recommended daily intake at just 600 to 800 units?
The safe dose of vitamin D supplementation to get most of the population to the optimal level is 2,000 IU a day, but the elderly and overweight may need more.
What do 56 randomized clinical trials involving nearly 100,000 people between the ages of 18 and 107 show vitamin D can do to our lifespan?
Those with higher vitamin D levels tend to have lower rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, but is it cause and effect? Interventional trials finally put vitamin D to the test.
Why has fish consumption been associated with cognitive impairment and loss of executive function?
Our physiology evolved for millions of years eating a plant-based diet. What would happen if researchers tried to recreate our ancestral diet in the lab?
Avoid sugary and cholesterol-laden foods to reduce the risk of our most common cause of chronic liver disease.
A cup a day of beans, chickpeas, or lentils for three months may slow resting heart rate as much as exercising for 50 hours on a treadmill.
To maximize our lifespan, the target resting heart rate may be one beat a second or less.
The reason greens are associated with a significantly longer lifespan may be because, like caloric restriction, they improve our energy efficiency.
What was the meat industry’s response to the recommendation by leading cancer charities to stop eating processed meats, such as bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and lunchmeat?
What three things can we do to lower our sodium intake? Are there any tricks for interpreting nutrition facts labeling on processed foods?
Eating a plant-based diet and avoiding scented personal care products and certain children’s and adult toys can reduce exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals.
The improvement of arterial function on a whole food, plant-based diet appears so pronounced that cardiac patients can achieve a 90% reduction in angina attacks.
Plant-based diets have been shown to slow or stop the progression of kidney failure, but what about all the phosphorus and potassium in plant foods?
If the uric acid crystals that trigger gout come from the breakdown of purines, should gout patients avoid even healthy, purine-rich foods, such as beans, mushrooms, and cauliflower?
Cow’s milk proteins can pass through breast milk—which may explain why maternal dairy-free diets are so effective in treating infant colic.
What about the studies that show a “u-shaped curve,” where too much sodium is bad, but too little may be bad too?
What can we eat to combat “inflamm-aging,” the chronic low-grade inflammation that accompanies the aging process?
Why do some drug-based strategies shorten the lives of diabetics and some diet-based strategies fail to decrease diabetes deaths?
Fennel seeds can work as effectively as drugs like ibuprofen for painful periods, and an eighth of a teaspoon of ginger powder three times a day can cut menstrual bleeding in half.
The concept that heart disease was rare among the Eskimos appears to be a myth.
Fatty streak formation occurs in human fetal arteries and is linked to the pregnant mother’s cholesterol level.
A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial on the use of the turmeric pigment curcumin to prevent diabetes in prediabetics is published with extraordinary results.
Diet may explain the Nigerian Paradox, where they have among the highest rates of the Alzheimer’s susceptibility gene, ApoE4, but among the lowest rates of Alzheimer’s disease.