Before we welcome 2024, let’s take a look back at what we learned about health in 2023.
The less you drink, the better
We’ve long known that excessive alcohol consumption triggers a raft of dangerous health outcomes, with research showing that heavy drinking causes roughly 140,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Yet the picture has also become clearer that alcohol is harmful to health starting at low levels. The evidence now suggests that even a drink or two a day can cause increased risk for various cancers, coronary heart disease and high blood pressure.
Think health span, not life span
At the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and in labs everywhere, researchers are increasingly focused not on how we can live to be 100 years old but, rather, how we can extend the number of years we remain free of disease and disability. Not surprisingly, the answers likely won’t be found in some magic pill. Instead, scientists are homing in on tried and true strategies like diet and physical activity.
For Dr. Benjamin Miller, who heads OMRF’s Aging & Metabolism Research Program, the answer to improving health span often lies in plain sight. “When I look at problems as an aging researcher,” he said, “there’s rarely a situation where I don’t think, ‘Oh, exercise could help that.’”
A revolution in weight-loss drugs
Speaking of drugs, a new wave of medications is transforming the landscape of obesity and weight loss. With Wegovy and Zepbound – along with their cousins, the diabetes drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro – people are routinely losing 15% or more of their body weight.
There remain many questions about the drugs’ long-term effectiveness and side effects, along with issues regarding cost, insurance reimbursement and availability. Still, as OMRF’s Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer Dr. Judith James recently wrote in this column, these drugs “have shown results that, until even a few years ago, would have been unimaginable.”
Reducing dementia risk
Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia remain some of our most difficult-to-treat health conditions. However, recent studies have pointed to simple interventions that could reduce risk for these illnesses: hearing aids, cataract surgery and maintaining robust social networks.
Get your Zzz’s
Another strategy that could cut your chances of developing Alzheimer’s is equally straightforward: Get more sleep. Plus, ensuring you spend enough time each night with the Sandman has an almost uncountable number of additional benefits, including decreased levels of accidents, depression, heart disease, cholesterol, hypertension and weight gain.
Come 2024, think sleep hygiene, which includes a regular bedtime and limiting screen exposure, alcohol and caffeine, especially in the evenings. But take a free pass on Dec. 31, when no one will begrudge you a late night – and even a little bubbly, if that’s your thing – to usher in what I hope will be a happy, healthy New Year!
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Adam Cohen is a marathoner and senior vice president and general counsel at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Submit your health questions to contact@omrf.org.
