The real joke, it turns out, is on those who laugh least, and it’s not very funny. The Scientific American reports on a University of Maryland study that found that laughter increases blood flow in the body, and is very likely a good thing for heart health. Cardiologist Michael Miller […]

The popular male adage about women–"It takes a lifetime to not understand them" may be true, but researchers continue to make progress in understanding the biological differences between the sexes. A team of scientists at Duke University has found evidence that the same regular dosage of aspirin cuts the risk […]

Perhaps you have heard, as Geezer has, a few too many disquisitions on the health benefits of garlic. Garlic may be an antibiotic. Garlic may be an anti-fungal. Garlic is almost certainly an effective means of birth control, if only one of two otherwise consenting adults has eaten it. One […]

L.A. Times writer Jeannine Stein takes us to a circumstance that many of us experience only in nightmare: a workout with the boss. No, finding your manager on the neighboring elliptical trainer is not fun, but yes, it can be funny, although Stein’s advice is intended to be taken seriously. […]

Geezer has been surprised, recently, by the increasing number of friends who report a sensitivity to gluten. If it’s not celiac disease, it is sufficiently unpleasant that these people make an effort to steer clear of wheat, a grain that, it turns out, is much harder to avoid than it […]

There are many athletic endeavors that Geezer would rather watch than do, but only because he can’t do them. Never could. Never will. One of those endeavors is the kind of extreme skiing captured in these films, taken from a list of nominees for Powder Magaine’s 2006 Powder Video Awards […]

Greg Miller, writing in the L.A. Times, rightly points out that for many of us, it’s easier to play through pain than to sit on the sidelines. Not everyone likes to watch. The big question, of course, is how long to sit on the sidelines. Miller’s answer, very unhelpfully, is […]

The New York Times gives us a handsome slide show of home exercise products through the ages, from the Glamour Stretcher to the Gazelle, all as a side dish to Steve Friedman’s 2,000 word tale of a less-than-joyful relationship with the exercise product du jour: Bowflex. Friedman tells us that […]

The Washington Post’s Moving Crew has some excellent advice for those walking wounded who just can’t decide if their latest sports injury warrants a trip to the doctor or another beer, three aspirin and a good night’s sleep. The Crew calls on Darryl Conway, assistant athletic director for sports medicine […]

The bad news, according to this piece in the L.A. Times, is that today’s top athletes appear to be approaching the peak physiological performance for the species. The good news is that they have been approaching that peak for centuries, and will continue to chip away at records, although in […]