FeldMed

10/29/2025

How Stressed Are You? Part 2

Last time we talked about stress and that we should measure how your body is actually handling the stress that it’s under. Today we want to review a little bit about the actual “stuff” we’re going to measure and how some of it might be surprising, or explain a few connections in your system that you might not have thought about.
Remember, it’s just that the thigh bone is connected to the knee bone (neither of which are actual anatomic terms, 😊), but EVERYTHING is connected. If something’s off, it’s going to have consequences, and sometimes those consequences can be quite “distant”.

Measuring is better than guessing.

Interested in seeing how YOU measure up? Give me a call.

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/how-stressed-are-you-part-2

10/15/2025

How Stressed Are You?

I like to say Attitude Trumps Biology….until it doesn’t. The people I work with get S**t done. They don’t have time to worry about being stressed. That doesn’t mean their bodies aren’t “feeling” it, and that there aren’t consequences. Everyone is stressed — but is your body keeping up? We shouldn’t guess at that — we should measure it and see, then correct what may not be quite right.
Give me a call if you are feeling not quite right or don’t want to wait until things stop working!

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/how-stressed-are-you

10/01/2025

We can regrow CARTILAGE!

Knee arthritis is a big problem. 50 million people have arthritis of some kind, with knee osteoarthritis (the most common form) being the 2nd leading cause of disability in this country. That generally leads to new knees!
But what if there were another way (and I don’t even mean stem cell related stuff, which can work quite well)?
Up until now the best bet was to try glucosamine/chondroitin, which helps (doesn’t solve anything) in maybe 30%. Gel shots can help for a time in about 50%. But neither of these solves the problem — degraded cartilage and ongoing inflammation.
Now, after over a decade of study, a new combination supplement has shown broad decreases in systemic inflammation, markedly decreased pain and stiffness, improved quality of life and function, AND the ability to regrow cartilage!
The accompanying video goes into a bit more detail, but if keeping your old knees longer and making them work better interests you, let’s have a conversation.

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/we-can-regrow-cartilage

07/11/2025

Wildfires can "burn" you over months

We are back in the haze. Wildfires in Canada are wafting smoke into our area. You see it in the haze, the reddish hues around the sun, especially around sunrise and sunset. And air quality alerts are on the media outlets.
Turns out that elevated levels of these particles carry risks. It’s been known for decades that air pollution (small particulates) raise the risk of lung diseases, heart attacks, even strokes. Now there’s an article that shows that the wildfire smoke doesn’t just raise your risk in the short term, but that risk carries forward for at least 3 months.
If you are one of the “sensitive” groups – lung problems, heart problems – then try to stay inside and keep the windows closed when there’s an air quality alert. It might just save your life.

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/wildfires-can-burn-you-over-months

05/14/2025

More Floss, Less Strokes (not talking teeth)

If you go to feldmed.com, you’ll see a gnarly picture of a guy brushing his teeth. We talk about how poor oral health leads to heart attacks. Well, here’s another variation on the theme – regular Flossing reduces Strokes. A regular flosser was someone who reported flossing once a week or more. I suppose not surprisingly, flosser had somewhat lower risks of hypertension and diabetes. They also had better gums, but their good cholesterol levels were higher, too,

What was a little surprising was that strokes were lower, but it seemed that the association was tied to less atrial fibrillation, which is an increasingly prevalent condition. More flossing also meant a greater reduction.

While not definitive, seems like I could include flossing in a routine…

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/more-floss-less-strokes-not-talking-teeth

05/07/2025

If you wait, the kids will get bigger.... And so will their problems

This study falls under the “Really, Sherlock?” category. Sometimes proving something for the sake of proving seems wasteful to me, and I’m being kind.

If an obese kid is given obesity treatment… wait for it…. And they respond well, they will have a reduced risk of obesity-related events as young adults. That means if you can get kids to lose weight, their risks of diabetes, high cholesterol, needing bariatric surgery, high blood pressure or even dying will be cut in half or better. Is anyone surprised by this??

I guess the point was that spending the money early actually paid for itself – it is, after all, all about the money.

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/if-you-wait-the-kids-will-get-bigger-and-so-will-their-problems

04/16/2025

The Neuroscience of Bubbles -- they do more than tickle your nose

Gabriel Lepousez is a neuroscientist working in perception and memory and asked the question” “Why does your brain love bubbles?”

Sparkling drinks have long been popular. I did not know, for example, that 12 liters of CO2 is dissolved in a pressurized bottle of champagne. He talks about the smell of the product being increased 10 fold from the microexplosions as the bubbles pop. There’s reference to the mustard receptor that suggests there’s a pain response. Taste is made acidic by the production of hydrogen ions. Ultimately, the “bubbly” engages all five senses, and that’s what grabs us! Salud! Cin Cin! L’Chiam!

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/the-neuroscience-of-bubbles-they-do-more-than-tickle-your-nose

04/09/2025

Slow Alzheimer's? You got it -- Get MOVING!

Here’s a quick take on a study from France and Monaco. Folks over 70 were recruited from “memory centers” with complaints of memory issues, slow walking speed and issues with activities of daily living. They were excluded if they were more restricted, or had dementia. P-tau181, a known marker for Alzheimer’s was measured over time, as well as assessing physical activity and cognitive scores. Even low levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity showed slower increases in the biomarker, though if the patients started with higher levels of p-tau181 there was no clear association.

Don’t wait until things start going south – GET MOVING NOW!

www.feldmed.com/blog-2/slow-alzheimers-you-got-it-get-moving

04/02/2025

Are We Going to Talk about Coffee Again? Yup!

I’m virtually certain you heard about this one – morning coffee saves lives, but not in the afternoon – or something like that!

It’s been up and down for coffee, but really it’s a solid yes for everyone who doesn’t hate it or have a negative reaction to it. So what’s new with this one? Honestly, not much. Years ago I wrote about how the more coffee you drank the longer you lived (ok, there’s a bit more to it than that), so long as you didn’t have an addictive personality. That’s kind of what this says – if you drink coffee all day, you’re probably doing other things that will kill you sooner, so the coffee is “diluted”.

Recommendation --- 1 to 3 cups in the morning is fine. Realize that the benefits come from the flavonoids and phytochemicals, not from caffeine. Essentially, if you start pushing your caffeine into the afternoon, you might be looking for trouble, effecting sleep quality. If you avoid that, knock yourself out.

I personally like a decaf espresso at lunch (I know, it seems like you’re defeating the purpose, but at least it’s not like grandma’s decaf!)

Alla Salute!

https://buff.ly/40O0y1r

I’m virtually certain you heard about this one – morning coffee saves lives, but not in the afternoon – or something like that!   It’s been up and down for coffee, but really it’s a solid yes for everyone who doesn’t hate it or have a negative reaction to it.  So what

03/19/2025

Insulin Pumps and the World Traveler - Public Service Announcement

More and more people are becoming diabetic, and consequently more people are ending up using insulin pumps. The technology is now fantastic and even type 1 diabetics whose sugars have been all over the place are now controlled. But those people have realized that traveling wreaks havoc with glucose control. Now we know why – BUBBLES! For most people it’s not a big deal, but for some, it can be.

Please forward this to anyone you know who uses an insulin pump. They’ll find it useful.

https://buff.ly/40RDzmt

More and more people are becoming diabetic, and consequently more people are ending up using insulin pumps.  The technology is now fantastic and even type 1 diabetics whose sugars have been all over the place are now controlled.  But those people have realized that traveling wreaks

03/12/2025

Depression and Ice Cream

Headlines often conflate associations into causation, essentially as click-bait. What does that mean?

My favorite example is “Ice Cream Causes Drowning”. No – I don’t mean the kids went swimming too soon after eating (that’s a myth, too, by the way). Drowning increases when more people go swimming. More people go swimming when it’s hot; more people eat ice cream when it’s hot, ergo – ice cream causes drowning. Duh --- NO! Association is not causation.

Here we have more steps equals less depression. But how do we know that the more depressed on is, the less likely they are to walk lots of steps? Meta-analyses group together lots of studies that may look at different questions, but have data that can be examined from a different angle. Opportunities to point to causation is extremely limited. Most of the articles these days are in this category, so be careful in the conclusions you draw.

What can we say? If you walk more, you’re less likely to be depressed. Does walking more decrease depressive symptoms? The answer to that is YES – just not from this meta-analysis.

https://buff.ly/4hbVry7

Headlines often conflate associations into causation, essentially as click-bait.  What does that mean?   My favorite example is “Ice Cream Causes Drowning”.  No – I don’t mean the kids went swimming too soon after eating (that’s a myth, too, by the way).&

03/05/2025

Women WIN -- when it comes to a Little Exercise

Surprise – we’re talking about exercise again!

And the good news only applies to women, and we don’t know why, but we think it’s related to intensity.

Anyway – If women can get even less than 2 minutes of vigorous exercise a day had a reduction in MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events), heart attack and heart failure. As the vigorous exercise went up, the rate of events went down. For men the benefits were not statistically significant (men didn’t get their heart rate up as high with their activity seems to be the reason).

So, again, time to get moving. But you have to work hard – for 20 or 30 seconds at a time, a few times a day – is that so bad? Come on! Let’s go!

https://buff.ly/4aH59pO

Surprise – we’re talking about exercise again! And the good news only applies to women, and we don’t know why, but we think it’s related to intensity. Anyway – If women can get even less than 2 minutes of vigorous exercise a day had a reduction in MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events)