Reuters Health is reporting a study showing that people with low vitamin D levels may face an increased risk for peripheral artery disease (PAD). In participants with the highest vitamin D levels, only 3.7 percent had PAD. Among those with the lowest levels, 8.1 percent had PAD.

Reuters News is reporting that a group of prominent cardiologists, dubbed the SHAPE Task Force, is recommending we doctors not only look at standard risk factors for heart disease – like obesity, diabetes, smoking, abnormal lipids, and high blood pressure – but, the task force says, doctors should routinely use CT scans to look for calcium deposits in the coronary arteries. Should we heed their recommendation?

This is the seventh part in a series excerpted from my book God’s Design for the Highly Healthy Teen.

DISCIPLINE

We now come to the fourth letter—D for “Discipline.” Lifting up our teens with affirmation, blameless love, and connectedness is critical for their health. But like a table, a fourth leg is needed to keep things on an equilibrium—the leg of parental guidance and enforced boundaries.