Today, nearly all foods and beverages make some sort of health claim, and nearly all of them are false.

Several times during the day when I meet with patients, I find myself teaching them how to read labels. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans age 6 and older consume about 14 percent of their total daily calories from added sugars. So many packaged foods contain hidden sugars, such as energy drinks, fruit juice, sweetened coffee and teas, granola bars, salad dressing, bread and yes, even fat-free yogurt.

Ask anyone who has suffered a serious injury or illness, or is living with a chronic condition necessitating continual and considerable expense, how they feel about the state of health care in the U.S. The inner workings of our health-care delivery system remain a mystery. Transparency is helpful, but like all such legislation, it spawns additional questions.

The website for Sonoma County Regional Parks describes the Joe Rodota Trail as “an 8.5-mile paved, off-road trail linking downtown Santa Rosa and Sebastopol . . . a popular route for cyclists, walkers and runners.” But that bucolic description is sobered by this warning on the same website: “Joe Rodota Trail users are advised to use an alternate route between Stony Point Road and South Wright roads due to safety concerns caused by illegal encampments along that trail section.”

During the heat of summer, gusts and gales from Petaluma often sweep over the Carneros region in Sonoma. As they encounter warm surface temperatures on steeper slopes and drift upward, they transform into anabatic winds, a gift from Mother Nature that usually occurs on clear sunny days. The name anabatic stems from the Greek word anabatos, which means moving upward. These anabatic winds are the inspiration and magic behind Anaba Wines.

The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn is the ultimate luxury getaway, well-known for its natural mineral hot springs discovered more than a century ago, and still a draw today. Over the years, the inn’s restaurant, Santé, has received much acclaim for its cuisine, but since executive chef Marcellus Coleman arrived in 2018, he’s been shaking up the food scene at the inn and recently revamped its brunch menu.

The SMART train, which has long been billed as a way to relieve congestion for commuters on Highway 101 and reduce pollution, finally arrived in Larkspur, linking the train with the ferry. And while completing the Cal Park Hill tunnel was a challenge for the transportation provider, more obstacles lay in its path.

We trusted in our political leadership’s claims that the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) would reduce our congested highways, eliminate unnecessary greenhouse gases and be a spectacular and popular new mode of transportation. You\'ve no doubt seen these beautiful trains as they travel alongside Highway 101. But are you a regular rider of SMART? Very few of us are.

As a child, Adrienne Silver, M.D. decided to work in the medical field early on. Her father, who had his own practice and specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, inspired her. While in medical school, Silver turned her attention toward pediatrics, and today she serves as the director of medical education at Kaiser’s Santa Rosa campus, overseeing the hospital’s family medicine residency and medical student programs, among other responsibilities.

Come February, most of the rah rah rahs and can-do attitudes of New Years resolutions are kicked to the wayside. Except for one, according to research from market analysis company, IWSR, which cited in a 2019 roundup, that 52 percent of U.S. surveyed consumers want to reduce alcohol consumption. Beverage companies are at the ready to make this resolution, a reality, with an avalanche of low- to no-alcohol beverages.

We’re still working to make full use of an individual’s genome to treat disease and improve health (one of the goals of so-called “precision medicine”), but it shows great promise in clinical trials for cancer treatment.

From sustainable eating to plogging trends, these are NorthBay biz tips to living a green life

Cardiovascular disease—also known as heart disease—is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Half of all heart disease deaths are caused by a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), which can happen anytime, anywhere, at any age. Many victims have no prior history of heart disease and are stricken without warning. Sudden cardiac arrest is the No. 1 cause of death in the workplace, killing 10,000 American workers every year.

North Bay biz celebrates and spotlights local art and artists from the North Bay. This month: David Sydney Scott and the Gator Nation band

From the local North Bay to nationwide, these are the leading business stories and statistics in the field of medicine.