Abnormal lipids (fats) in the blood are considered one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of premature death.  Conventional wisdom has been to evaluate blood lipids after abstaining from food for 12 hours. 

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Q: I’m 40 and happily married. My husband and I have been trying to conceive for 2 years but no pregnancy yet. We’re pretty sure we don’t want to get into anything drastically high-tech or expensive but are certainly open to natural fertility enhancement. Any ideas?

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Loss of height of one inch or more may be an indicator of a vertebral fracture. That means one of the 29 “backbones” forming the spine might have a crack or be slightly crushed. These vertebral fractures are much more common than one would think and vertebral fracture is emerging as an important indicator of osteoporosis.

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Q:Why Do I Crave Foods That Are “Bad” For Me?

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Q: There seems to be a lot in the magazines about thyroid problems. How can I tell if I have a thyroid problem?

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PMS was classified in the early ’80s into four types by medical researcher Guy Abraham, MD. Although most women suffer from a mix of these types, it may be helpful, in terms of the most appropriate treatment strategies, to sort out symptoms as follows:

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First Trimester Nausea… Yikes!

First, a tried and true quotation heard many times during my adolescence from my father… “this too will pass.” You’re thrilled, all your relatives are thrilled, you’re starting to dream about darling infant outfits, researching the best pre-schools, baby-proofing the whole house, and how do you feel? Yuk! Second, full-fledged, woozy, faint, lethargic, stomach-heaving nausea is one of the signs that yes, your hormones are changing, and the pregnancy is “taking.” This is not to say that you should be worried if you DON’T feel like throwing up every few hours for the first few months, just a reassurance that healthy embryos often stir up a lot of change.

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Q: I’m 50 and starting the “change of life.” I’m very upset that I can’t make a decision about whether or not to take hormones. If I don’t take hormones maybe my bones will all shatter. But if I do take hormones maybe I’ll get uterine cancer. So maybe I should get a hysterectomy. But I could still get breast cancer. Help!

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