Nearly 30 million U.S. adults have sleep apnea, say experts. Roughly 80 percent of them don’t know it. If you keep your bed partner up with your snoring, wake up gasping for air in the middle of the night, fall asleep while stopped at red lights, or wake up with morning headaches, you may be one of them.
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Want to test your smarts about all sorts of issues we’ve covered in Nutrition Action over the years? Here’s a quick quiz. Each question has only one correct answer. Good luck!
Getting too little sleep may boost the risk of health problems. Here’s why sleep matters, how to determine your own sleep needs, and how to sleep better.
Yearning for longer, restful sleep? Supplements with ingredients like melatonin, valerian root, and magnesium promise “sleep support.” And what about the “sleepy girl mocktail” (tart cherry juice and magnesium powder, topped off with a fizzy drink), which swept TikTok this year? Here’s what the science says.
Scientists had 38 women sleep for (a) their usual 7 to 9 hours a night or (b) 1½ hours less (about 6 hours) for 6 weeks each. (The women had excess weight or a family history of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high LDL cholesterol, or high triglycerides.)
A third of adults get less sleep than the 7 to 9 hours a night that experts recommend. Could lack of sleep help fuel the obesity epidemic?
Researchers randomly assigned 80 people with excess weight who typically slept less than 6½ hours a night either to continue their usual sleep routine or to receive individualized counseling to reach 8½ hours of sleep a night for two weeks.
In 2018, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans advised adults to do at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise like brisk walking, cycling, or dancing—or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise like running—every week. And they recommended strength exercises at least twice a week.
Newsflash: Most of us aren’t hitting those targets. We’ll find a routine post-pandemic, after the holidays, when work calms down, when the weather is warmer (or cooler). But our bodies aren’t frozen in time while we’re not exercising. We’re paying a price.
Here are eight reasons to get moving today.
“What work of genius has ever been composed on chamomile?” asks Michael Pollan in his audiobook Caffeine, as he tries to quit his habit. America runs on caffeine. Roughly 85 percent of us drink at least one caffeinated beverage every day. Here’s the latest on how caffeine affects our health.
