Peripheral arterial disease is a common circulatory problem affecting more than 8 million Americans. These days, the airwaves are loaded with multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns to lobby patients with the disease about what they need, what tests to receive and which drugs to take. One particular commercial urges patients with heart disease to screen for PAD, using the catchy tag line "we look for it; we find it; and we fix it." Unfortunately, it's just not ... [full story]

I was unfolding into my morning yoga routine the other morning while listening to the TV news. It's not the purest form of the practice, but it's acceptable on a busy day. I began scribbling notes when I heard President Obama's budget guru Peter Orszag answer questions about health care reform. "Health care reform is the key to our country's fiscal future," said OMB Director Orszag, justifying the White House's $634-billion budget item best he ... [full story]

Tip of the Week: It's better to feel good than to look good. Yes, I said it. Now, don't get me wrong, I have made a career of encouraging people to look their best. In fact, achieving a physical ideal has been a cornerstone of my life since I was a boy. That being said, however, there is no point to having a primed physique, or much of anything else for that matter, if you ... [full story]

Tip of the Week: Whatever it is you're looking for as you aim to reach your fitness goals, the odds are you won't find it in a pill. While I'm not implying that there aren't a number of good supplements on the market, I am saying that what you're looking to achieve can be reached primarily by way of diet and exercise. Of course, this isn't something many people want to hear. Being able to ... [full story]

If you're a hothead, more than your relationships are at stake. People who are prone to angry outbursts and fits of rage have a significantly greater risk of developing heart disease than their calmer counterparts. Over the past decade, scientists have built a strong case for the link between anger and heart disease. In a six-year study of nearly 13,000 healthy middle-age adults, University of North Carolina researchers found that men and women who were ... [full story]

Last month, police in Charlotte, N.C., charged a would-be bank robber with first-degree murder after he burst into the house of a 79-year-old woman, resulting in her death. After botching an attempted robbery, 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into and hid out in the home of Mary Parnell. Whitfield did not touch Parnell, but the woman died after suffering a heart attack. Prosecutors say Whitfield is guilty of murder because he, in effect, scared Parnell to ... [full story]

It didn't appear to be the wisest time to be taking a five-day ski vacation to Snowmass, Colo., even with a free and gorgeous place to stay. So much work to do. Bills to pay. Economic collapse to obsess over. And yet, it was the only time I had, so I grabbed it. Maybe I'll write a column about the importance of work-play balance, I told myself on the breathtaking ride through the Rockies. Write ... [full story]

No politics, no pontification over policy, and no sparring with public officials. This week's column goes back to the fundamentals of helping people get help. Dear Mr. Moyers: Professional treatment is not the only way to get sober. For people who can't afford or won't go for treatment, why don't you refer them to Alcoholics Anonymous? It works! Be sure to tell them to go to a lot of different AA groups so they get ... [full story]

Tip of the Week: Train larger muscle groups first, then smaller ones. If you want to get the most out of your workouts, you need to structure them accordingly. This means beginning with larger body parts and working your way down to smaller ones. The reason for doing this is twofold. For one, larger muscle groups require more energy, so doing them first when you're freshest allows you to give them the effort they require. ... [full story]

Milk is an excellent source of bone-building calcium and other important nutrients — but for some folks, it's also a source of gastrointestinal misery. As many as 70 million Americans are believed to suffer from lactose intolerance, a condition that renders them unable to properly digest the sugar in milk and other dairy products. The primary sugar in milk is lactose — a large, bulky molecule comprised of two simpler sugars, glucose and galactose. Before ... [full story]

It's an old adage that if you want to see what somebody will look like in old age, check out their parents. But a new study suggests that even more than heredity, events in a person's life strongly influence their appearance overtime. "A person's heritage may initially dictate how they age," said Dr. Bahaman Guyuron, chairman of the department of plastic surgery at University Hospitals Medical Center in Arlington Heights, Ill. "But if you introduce ... [full story]

Prostate cancer affects millions of American men, with one in six being diagnosed with the disease during his life. But, thanks to early detection and sophisticated therapy, only one in 35 will die from it. Awareness of prostate cancer has risen dramatically in the last decade, and more than ever before, average American men are taking steps to detect the disease. Unfortunately, for the medical community, determining the appropriate screening and treatment process for prostate ... [full story]

President Obama set me up. For one brief, shining moment the other day, the e-mail that plopped into my inbox from the big guy in the White House hijacked my common sense and filled me with hope that public policy about addiction finally was about to change. The e-mail's subject line said it all: "What recovery means for you." I was convinced that this was the news that'd been too long in coming and that ... [full story]