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Five Simple Steps to Stay Healthy This Holiday Season...and All Year Round

10/30/2016

As we approach the holiday season and, shortly afterward, the new year, let’s remember some proven steps we can take to improve our health -- often without much extra cost.

Get a move on: More than one study has shown that among the many benefits of regular exercise is increased longevity and decreased risk of cancer.
Stop taking vitamins and supplements, unless you have been diagnosed with a particular deficiency. Taking vitamins to “get stronger” or “feel less tired” is a widespread myth which wastes money and doesn’t improve health.
Eat fat: National health guidelines urging us to reduce fat intake were based on weak science. Butter is delicious.
Your weight is important only if you think it’s important: Obesity is known to be associated with a higher risk of certain diseases (for example, diabetes and joint diseases). But this doesn’t mean you have to drastically change the shape or weight of your body. Decide on small, realistic goals which are feasible and can lead little by little to your goal.
These days there’s a lot of talk about “precision medicine,” tailoring medications, for example, to the newest research about the connection between genetics and health. Who knows what future studies might show, but to date it’s clear that the greatest effect is from common-sense strategies: don’t eat too much, get a good night’s sleep, don’t spend money on stupid, dangerous stuff (recreational drugs and the like), and look for activities and company which help support your chosen priorities. That’s how you can support your own DNA, no matter what’s in your genome.

In the coming year, eagerly waited results will be published about the best treatments for high blood pressure; the optimum treatment of cholesterol; and results of a study to assess if colonoscopies really are the best way to prevent colon cancer. But this latest health news is really second place after the basic points we’ve already mentioned. Even these basics aren’t necessarily easy, especially if you are lacking money, a home or a stable life. But as a start, and a goal, they aren’t a bad first try.

A healthy winter, happy holidays, and best wishes to all my readers. Keep those emails, Facebook messages, and queries coming!

This article was originally published in Yiddish in the Yiddish Forward, and this translation is published by agreement with that newspaper.

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New Yorkers! Make Sense of Medicine!

10/30/2016

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New York friends, please come on Tuesday at 6pm to my reading at the NYU Bookstore, 726 Broadway, Manhattan. The reading and question-answering goes till 7:30. It'll be great to see you there!

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Ask Dr. Berger: will I have a higher risk of cancer if I don't have kids?

10/6/2016

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This post originally appeared in Yiddish at the Yiddish Forward; this translation appears with their permission. This blog is also sponsored by my new book, Making Sense of Medicine. Pick up your copy today!

Dear Dr. Berger,

I am a woman on the cusp of 30 and I am not married. Recently I have come to understand that I might miss the opportunity to have children biologically. Of course I have various thoughts about this, but maybe you can help me with one of them: I heard that women without children get cancer more often. Is this true (though I understand that this is no reason to have a child)? What do you think about the general topic of how “natural” it is to give birth (or not), and how this can affect the body?

Yours,
Would Rather Make Books Than Kids

Dear Books,

The argument is that the hormones produced by the ovaries till menopause can indeed increase the risk of cancer. Everything that increases the time of the body’s exposure to hormones can also elevate that risk (e.g., a girl who starts menstruating at a younger age, or later menopause), and everything which reduces the time of hormone production (for example, pregnancy) can reduce the risk.

That’s all in theory, of course. What do the scientific studies tell us, and should someone worry about the connection between not having biologic children and cancer? A systematic review published this year shows that the chance of breast cancer is elevated 1.5 times in women who don’t give birth to children. Before getting anxious, one should understand what that means. First, you should ask - 1.5 times *what*?

If your risk of breast cancer is not significantly greater than the population’s, a factor of one and a half may not appreciably change your future. Secondly, though breast cancer is certainly to be avoided, not every case of the disease is alike. Cancer can be treated, and even prevented in some cases with pills. All of this requires a detailed discussion with a reliable doctor or nurse who is informed about the data and your priorities.

The same is true, with certain changes, about ovarian and endometrial cancer, though the proportions, and the reliability of the relevant studies, is somewhat different. There are other cancers which might be related to giving birth though the evidence is even less clear in those cases.

Let’s consider this another way, though. Of course you’re right that the risk of cancer is not a sufficient reason in itself to have biologic children. If we were a patient and a doctor in a room together, I would ask you -- do you really think that 30 is the end of having kids? People have kids in their 30s, and even “old women” well into their 40s! (That’s not to mention other routes, of course, like adopting, surrogacy, etc.)

I would also ask what disturbs you in particular about cancer. Of course “that disease” (many of our ancestors hesitated even to call it by its name) is a source of terror to many, but it’s not the only disease in the world. Maybe your family history includes a cancer which concentrates your thoughts and colors your approach? Or perhaps the “cancer awareness” of our society has affected you? The pluses and minuses of having kids (biologically or otherwise) are a lot deeper than risk factors for disease.

In conclusion - I agree that books are just as important as kids. Both can bring joy and worry in equal measure.

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Five Simple Steps to Stay Healthy This Holiday Season...and All Year Round

New Yorkers! Make Sense of Medicine!

Ask Dr. Berger: will I have a higher risk of cancer if I don't have kids?

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