Many people have expressed concern to me following recent news stories about a government report on the safety of ginkgo biloba extract.

I view the stories about this study as misleading. The worrisome conclusion that the public seems to be drawing from them is that a government...

Human beings have survived for millennia because most of us make good decisions about our health most of the time. These decisions are usually based on common sense, defined by the American Heritage dictionary as: "Sound judgment not based on specialized knowledge."

However, common sense can also lead one astray....

For many in the modern world, carving out time for both traditional seated meditation and exercise has become close to impossible. I've also known many people who are, by nature, movers. For them, sitting still to meditate -- or do anything else for that matter -- just isn't going to...

Étudiant de premier cycle à Harvard dans les années 60, j'ai été fasciné par mes visites au laboratoire du psychologue B.F. Skinner. En réponse à une lumière ou à un son, les rats dans les cages du labo se mettaient à courir dans tous les sens jusqu'à ce qu'ils poussent...

As an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1960s, I was fascinated by my visits to psychologist B.F. Skinner's laboratory. In response to a light or sound, rats in the lab's cages would run around randomly until they accidentally pressed a bar that caused a food pellet to tumble into the...

I am 70 years old. I have reached the point in life at which I choose -- or, to use New Year's terminology, resolve -- to do only those things that make sense to me. The list of such activities has become much shorter than it was even 10...

On its surface, the cause of the Western world's obesity epidemic seems simple: People are eating too many calories and getting too little calorie-burning exercise; the imbalance manifests as excess fat.

But this explanation is too simple. Even low-calorie diets and vigorous exercise fail to work in the long term...

By Stephen Devries, M.D. and Andrew Weil, M.D.

Stephen Devries, M.D. is an integrative preventive cardiologist and executive director of the Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology, a nonprofit organization that promotes nutrition and natural strategies to prevent heart disease.

The Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care...

The advice to have five or six small meals daily has become common in recent years. I am 69 years old and don't recall ever hearing this as a child and seldom as a young adult, but by the 1980s it seemed to be everywhere. Today, it is close to...

It's not often that one finds a perfect oxymoron, but it happened to me in a supermarket recently when I encountered a pint of "Fat-Free Half & Half."

In the U.S., half-and-half is typically half milk and half cream and contains about 12 percent fat, so how can such a...

Until I was 40 years old, I was a botanical field researcher and constantly on the move, so much so that I seldom bothered to have an actual residence. I was also an only child and did not marry until I was 49 -- a fiercely-independent streak is a fundamental...

Does insomnia cause depression? Does depression cause insomnia? Chronic insomnia is strongly associated with mood disorders, but which way does the causality run?

I think it's likely that cause-and-effect can go in either direction, but surprisingly, there is little experimental research on the connection between sleep and emotions. What there...

Gasoline is expensive, money is tight, and obesity in America is at record levels -- three good reasons to make the spring of 2012 the time to get serious about walking.

The most common objection that I hear to walking as exercise is that it's too easy, that only...

Hormesis is a little-known term with huge implications. It refers to a fascinating phenomenon: a favorable biological reaction to low doses of chemical toxins, radiation or some other form of stress that is damaging, even fatal, in higher doses.

It was first scientifically noted by German pharmacologist Hugo Schulz...

In my new book, "Spontaneous Happiness," I write about lifestyle practices that can help people achieve and maintain happy lives. Bear in mind that by "happy," I am not referring to endless bliss. Despite what many in the media proclaim these days, such a state is neither achievable...

The dramatic rise in depression diagnoses over the last two decades is a great challenge to modern medicine. I believe that part of the "depression epidemic" is false -- a creation of aggressive disease-mongering by pharmaceutical companies to promote antidepressant sales. However, it's equally clear that within that trend, there...

Everyone prefers some foods over others, but some adults take this tendency to an extreme. These people tend to prefer the kinds of bland food they may have enjoyed as children -- such as plain or buttered pasta, macaroni and cheese, cheese pizza, French fries and grilled cheese sandwiches --...

On June 2, a colorful plate replaced the food pyramid as the official icon representing U.S. Dietary Guidelines, and that's generally good news. But there are some conceptual chips and cracks in this new dinnerware.  Overall, I fear another opportunity has been lost to give Americans the best up-to-date information...

For the last several years, many pregnant women have been seriously limiting -- or scrupulously avoiding -- fish in their diets. This is largely due to a 2004 advisory from the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency recommending that pregnant women limit fish consumption to 12 ounces...

Indigestion isn't an especially glamorous medical topic, but relieving this condition -- and keeping the whole gastrointestinal (GI) tract operating comfortably and efficiently -- is vital to overall well being. As French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau put it, "Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion."