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Weird Ways to Die
You can actually die by drinking too much water.
Water taken without salts flushes out your system leading to an electrolyte imbalance that, if taken far enough, will kill you.
While to our knowledge nobody has actually died like this - you would have to drink at least a gallon per hour -- marathon runners have on occasion begun to suffer low-electrolyte symptoms from drinking too much plain H20.
So, make sure you hydrate with a good sports drink during prolonged, sweaty activities. Despite the (overstated) salt-bashing in the popular health media, sodium chloride (table salt) and its cousin, potassium chloride, are vital for human health.
We are not currently updating the "news" section -- all of our resources have been diverted to working on "Interactive Health"
We hope to get back to supplying news and general health articles in a month or so; however, building the interactive part of the site has proven to be so challenging and so rewarding that all of our time/money/effort are being put into it. We hope you will give it a try.
In the meantime, you are welcome to look around the "dhreport" part of the site -- there are a lot of good articles and good information, although the formatting may be off in spots.
Today in Daily Health Report
- Did you ever wonder which breakfast cereals are highest in fiber, or lowest in sugar? Want to get more iron or calcium in your food, but need to watch your calories? We have been busy! Our new detailed nutritional database is finished and ready to use. As far as we know, this is the only site on the 'net that will allow specific food searches by nutrient per ounce or per calorie, such as "what cuts of beef, lamb and pork are lowest in saturated fat per calorie?" or "which vegetables have the highest amount of beta-cryptoxanthin* per ounce?"
- Search for the nutritional composition of individual foods and get recommended daily amount percentages, individualized to your needs.
- Search for foods that have high or low amounts of any of over 60 nutrients.
- See how many calories that exercise really burns.
- Search for categories of food and see all nutritional components
- Calculate your BMI (body mass index), how many calories you need per day, how many calories to cut to reach a specific weight, and much more.
- Calculate your waist-hip and belly-waist ratios
*(This tongue-twister of a word, "beta-cryptoxanthin", may be impossible to remember, but it is something you really need to get into your diet. It helps enormously to lower arthritis and other inflammatory joint conditions.)
Two recent studies show that the amount of food a person eats depends a lot on how big a "portion" appears to be.
People given a big bucket of popcorn eat 30-40% more than those given a smaller bucket. People who walk by a big bowl of M&M's eat more if there is a big scoop in the bowl than if there is a smaller spoon. Find out how to use your subconscious tendency to eat a "portion" to help control your weight.
If you want to keep your brain functioning in middle and old age, stay in shape and eat well! New research from Sweden strongly ties dementia (including Alzheimer's Disease ) to the same lifestyle factors involved in coronary health, diabetes prevention, and many other illnesses. The effect of even light exercise on mental ability is profound.
If you like your watermelon cold, you're in for a disappointment. Chilling that melon will deprive you of some of the nutritive value.
One of the worst of the many woes of pregnancy can be pain in the lower back and pelvis. Swedish researchers have shown that the best way to ease this pain is "aquarobics", exercise performed while immersed in a pool.
Researchers at the UCLA School of Medicine have developed a way to turn the stem cells found in human fat into smooth muscle cells. This promises breakthrough treatment for heart disease, as well as many bladder and intestinal problems.
The bad news for the overweight and obese just keeps getting worse. In the past 15 years, the number of people has doubled who cannot get complete medical care because their extra fat impedes accurate x-rays, cat scans, and ultrasound.
If you are in your 70's, bottoms up! In some of the best news this year, a new study shows that light to moderate drinking among people 70-79 years old decreases the death rate by an astonishing 30 percent. So have up to one drink a day.
New in the Articles Section
We have just added detailed cancer mortality tables by type of cancer, broken down by world regions, and separate tables for the UK. These are somewhat technical but are laid out clearly and certainly easily read by the average person. We are going to expand the section greatly, over time, as a public resource; comprehensive hard facts on cancer are often difficult to find and can be enormously important.
Find out all about artificial sweeteners -- you may be surprised at what you're eating.
This Week's Highlights
Coming Soon in DHR
Next Week: Fiber Can Save Your Life, Part II: What fiber is and what foods to eat to get enough of it.
New Quiz: How much do you know about muscles?
Members: We may not make it by next week, but the first feature inside our Members' section is coming.
And as always, all of the important news with explanations about what it means to you.
How Big is That Hamburger?
| Size | Calories | Saturated Fat | Body Weight Index* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 oz | 240 | 6g | -5 lbs |
| 4 oz | 320 | 8g | 0 |
| 6 oz | 480 | 12g | +10 lbs |
| 8 oz | 640 | 16g | +21 lbs |
| plus a 1 oz slice of American cheese | |||
| 1 oz | 95 | 7 g | +6 lbs |