Author: healthtost

If you’re experiencing bloating, digestive distress – think diarrhea or constipation, food sensitivities or intolerances, fatigue, skin problems, or symptoms that seem to flare up for no apparent reason, you’re not imagining it. Many people who struggle with chronic symptoms have underlying gut inflammation and an imbalanced gut microbiome. Treating gut inflammation is an increasingly important focus in both research and clinical practice – it’s a huge passion of mine as a registered dietitian nutritionist. The gut is not only responsible for digestion. It plays a central role in immune function, regulating inflammation, absorbing nutrients, and communicating with the brain…

About 60,000 Danes live with chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Some experience limited discomfort, while others go through a debilitating course of illness that includes surgery and a stoma. Add to that the fear of leaving the house due to urgent toilet needs. One of the biggest challenges with the disease is that doctors cannot predict what kind of progression the person will face. As a result, many of those affected are either over- or under-treated, and the opportunity to intervene early, before the gut is completely destroyed, is lost. Now, a new Danish study from the DNRF Center of Excellence…

Fifteen years ago, Rebecca D. Costa challenged us all to face the danger we faced. In her book, The Watchman’s Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapsepublished in 2010, said, “Today, the issues threatening human existence are clear: an intractable global recession, powerful pandemic viruses, terrorism, rising crime, climate change, rapid depletion of the earth’s resources, nuclear proliferation, failed education.” Her mentor, the eminent biologist and naturalist Edward O. Wilson, who wrote the foreword to her book, summed up our predicament this way: “We have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology. And it’s terribly dangerous, and now it’s approaching…

The release of the Epstein files continues to dominate the headlines for what is and is not included. On February 25, 2026, nearly a month after documents were dropped on January 30, 2026 by the Department of Justice, New York Times and NPR referred to missing memos about President Donald Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier in February, access was given to members of Congress unedited versions of these documents. Representative Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming; he had this to say when he left the screening room: “I was not one of the members who took it…

⭐⭐⭐⭐½ | Reviewed after 4 months of nightly use | The mattress is provided by Parent Tested Parent ApprovedMy husband and I slept on a memory foam mattress from Wayfair for several years. It was relatively cheap and at first we thought we had scored big. But here’s the thing about financial strata: they don’t always age gracefully.After a few years, our Wayfair mattress developed two very defined grooves right where we slept every night. My husband and I are not small people, but we felt that the mattress should have held its shape better than it did. We woke…

Hello friends! I have a brand new podcast episode live and today is a very special one — episode 200 🎉 This is a short solo episode where I reflect on my own healing journey and share the biggest mistakes I made along the way, especially during my autoimmune symptoms. This episode is less about sadness and more about perspective, compassion, and help to help you avoid some of the same pitfalls if you’re in a healing season right now. In this episode, I open up about what was going on behind the scenes when my lupus markers were positive,…

Chronic pain is one of the most common health conditions worldwide. Back pain is the most commonly reported type, followed by head and face pain associated with the jaw joint, in the form of temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ).Although not life-threatening like cancer or infectious disease, chronic pain can dramatically reduce quality of life and functional lifespan. As mobility declines, people may face limited career options and increasing difficulty in performing basic daily activities. Epidemiological studies indicate that chronic pain can shorten life expectancy by up to 10 years due to reduced physical activity and general deterioration of health.”Pain in the…

This week, as hearings begin for a new Surgeon General, we reflect on what kind of public health leadership is required. And as Black History Month draws to a close, one name rises with clarity and conviction: Dr. Jocelyn Elders. Many know her as the first Black Surgeon General of the United States. Fewer know the full extent of its history. Dr. Jocelyn Elders was born in rural Arkansas in 1933, the daughter of sharecroppers and one of eight children. She often reflected on her upbringing, saying, “I grew up on a farm in a three-room shack. We had no…

Transactional sex in forced displacement contexts is widely discussed, but too often framed through narrow lenses. It is often confused with terms such as trafficking, exploitation or sex work and approached through moralizing or criminalizing narratives that obscure lived realities. In this episode of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRHM) Podcast.Eszter Kismődi talks to Dr Shirin Heidari, its principal investigator and coordinator Liminality Research Consortium hosted by the Gender Center at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Professor Monica A. Onyango, Co-Principal Investigator at Boston University School of Public Health, on the recent multi-country study, Survival strategies and health impacts…

For decades, pregnant women at risk of preterm labor have heard the same advice: slow down, stay off your feet, get as much rest as possible. It makes sense. If something threatens the pregnancy, surely doing less should protect it. But new research published in Obstetrics & Gynecology challenges this long held belief. The AWARE (Activity in Women at Risk for Preterm Birth) study found that activity restriction did not prolong pregnancy. In fact, women who were the most sedentary – averaging fewer than 3,500 steps per day – were more likely to give birth earlier and had more than…