Pharmacist Selects Healthy Tips

By Luanne Austin

David Mattichak draws on 40 years of experience as a pharmacist to read and select the best tips from medical studies in his new book, "Please Help Me Stay Healthy.

PORT REPUBLIC - Did you know that eating raw honey made by bees from local plants (and therefore, local pollen) can help prevent allergies?

Did you know that, in addition to protecting your heart, taking aspirin can help prevent colon cancer?

Did you know that drinking one cup of coffee gives you the antioxidant power of three oranges?

Those are just a few of the tips David Mattichak offers in his book, "Please Help Me Stay Healthy."

For the book, he draws on his education and experience as a research pharmacist and then 40 years as a drugstore pharmacist. He also reads a number of medical studies.

"Most people don't have time to do all this research," says Mattichak, 80.

All of Mattichak's seven brothers died of heart attacks. He didn't want that to happen to him, so he started paying attention to his heart a long time ago.

As a pharmacist in the store, customers often talked to him about their health. Many people with high cholesterol never had a heart attack, while others with low cholesterol had suffered heart attacks. So he realized cholesterol was only part of the picture when it came to heart health.

Mattichak also discovered that blood cholesterol tests can vary widely from......read the whole story and a comment