FOUNDATIONS OF WELLNESS
The Basics of Staying Healthy
Expert guidance and insights on the basics of nutrition, exercise, self-care, prevention and living well from the Wellness Letter in collaboration with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
New Cholesterol Guidelines
Heart attack and stroke prevention efforts shouldn’t wait until midlife. In fact, it’s never too early to start cholesterol screening, according to new clinical guidelines from the American College...
May 2026 Issue
- More Reasons to Reduce Sodium
- Life Before Vaccines
- Vibration Therapy for Bone Health
- New Thinking About HDL Cholesterol
- Planetary Health Diet
- Sicilian-Style Broccoli Rabe
Sicilian-Style Broccoli Rabe
The slight bitterness of broccoli rabe is tempered here by the sweetness of raisins. If you prefer, substitute milder broccolini for the broccoli rabe. All of the broccoli rabe...
Life Before Vaccines: My Story
Medical science has profoundly changed our lives. I am sure that I would not have survived to this old age (95) without antibiotics and advances in epidemiology and surgery.
I...
Boils: Not Just a Bane of Plagues
I’m prone to developing pimple-like bumps around my buttocks that sometimes get pretty big and painful and then burst. Yuck! Whatever they are—boils?—how can I get rid of them...
Ouch: Tooth Pain in Winter
During the cold snap this winter, my husband kept complaining that his teeth “hurt.” He’d just been to the dentist, who found no problems. Can cold temperatures cause tooth...
A Diet That’s Good for You and the Planet
If people who eat a typical Western diet switch to a largely plant-based one, it could make a big difference in their personal health. And if we all make...
Shaking Up Osteoporosis Treatment
When Time magazine released its Best Inventions of 2025, alongside the chlorine-removing water filter, chemical-free mosquito bite treatment, and temperature-controlled medication storage was a vibrating belt called Osteoboost. The...
New Thinking About HDL Cholesterol
For decades, doctors have advocated raising high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol for reducing heart disease risk. Since a low level of HDL is correlated with an increased risk for heart...
Beyond Hypertension: Other Reasons to Reduce Sodium
By now, most of us know that Americans consume too much sodium—more than 3,300 milligrams daily, on average—in the form of sodium chloride (aka salt). That's well above the...
