Prevention & Recovery | Patient Resources

Some myths never die. The idea of taking 10,000 steps a day is one of them. What started as a catchy marketing slogan has become a mantra for anyone promoting physical activity. But the 10,000-step target is arbitrary and ignores a fundamental truth of lifestyle medicine: When it comes to physical activity, anything is better than nothing. It all began in 1965 when the Japanese company Yamasa Tokei began selling a new step-counter which they called manpo-kei (ten-thousand steps meter). They ...

Heavy drinking during early adulthood may raise the risk for alcohol-related cancers, even after drinking stops or decreases in middle age, according to a new study from Australia. Although alcohol is a known risk factor for cancer, people generally do not expect their heavy drinking in early adulthood to affect their cancer risk many years later, lead author Harindra Jayasekara, MBBS, MD, PhD, with Cancer Council Victoria and University of Melbourne, told Medscape Medical News. Bu...

Playing a video game requires mental agility and focus. You have to target bad guys, learn new skills to advance, and remember how to use your controller to jump over that bomb in the road or to avoid the assassin hiding in the corner. The action playing out on screen isn’t real life, but the learnings and effort involved may have real-world applications. For cancer patients who have trouble focusing on certain tasks or remembering what they were looking for in the kitchen, for example,...

The glycaemic index is a tool that’s often used to promote better blood sugar management. Several factors influence the glycaemic index of a food, including its nutrient composition, cooking method, ripeness, and the amount of processing it has undergone. The glycaemic index can not only help increase your awareness of what you’re putting on your plate, but also enhance weight loss, decrease your blood sugar levels, and reduce your cholesterol.  The glycaemic index (GI) is...

Lavender is not only fragrant and pretty—it is edible. Lavender can offer a floral, herbal taste and aroma to many recipes, such as this delicately spiced beverage. Filled with chai tea, coffee, almond or coconut milk,  dried lavender flowers and just a touch of honey, you can enjoy this relaxing beverage as a much healthier option over many coffee shop latte drinks, which are often laden with sugar and high-fat additions that are high in calories. Ingred...