It’s hard to believe but I’ve been writing this blog for over a year and half now. In that time I’ve written hundreds of columns that I hope will be relevant for many years to come. The best way to ensure relevancy is to revisit old topics from time to time. This is an advantage for online writers. Unlike text book authors, we can update our work with the most current scientific data without having to request a revision from a publisher. This provides a winning situation for the readers, the writers and the trees that won’t be turned into pages.
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The topic of breastfeeding and infant formula has been on my mind lately. Perhaps it’s because a colleague and friend recently had a baby. My brother-in-law and his wife are also expecting. With all of the contradictory information out there about prenatal nutrition, I wonder how they and other parents-to-be decide on what’s best for the babies. Thankfully, it seems that at least one area of prenatal care isn’t widely contested – breastfeeding. If a mother is healthy and capable of providing adequate breast milk, it is generally considered the optimal source of nourishment. But much like infant formula, the quality of breast milk is largely dependent upon what ingredients it contains. This is why what a mother eats and supplements with during pregnancy and while breastfeeding is vitally important. My Healthy Monday tip of the week is for expectant mothers to discuss essential fatty acid supplementation with their physicians.
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There is an enormous gap between what we know and don’t know in the field of alternative and complementary medicine. Countless questions remain unanswered simply because there isn’t enough financing and resources to test in a scientific manner. That’s why it’s vitally important to put to use every last study that has been conducted. Because even the slightest of experiments can yield important clues that help bridge the knowledge gap. Read more »

I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of meaningful coincidences or synchronicity. But that doesn’t stop me from assigning significance to patterns that seem to crop up for whatever reason. In the past few weeks several people that I know have expressed a concern about the estrogenic properties of soy foods and supplements. I’ve covered this issue in previous columns, but thought this might be a good time to report on the most recent evidence available on this controversial topic. Read more »

Every once in a while I stumble across a “Where are they now?” program on television – a show documenting the lives of famous figures long after the spotlight has left them behind. A similar analogy could be made in the field of medicine. Select foods, medical procedures and supplements are always the recipients of media attention, but typically, it doesn’t last for very long. Does this mean that they’re no longer noteworthy once the spotlight has left them behind? Not from my perspective. That’s why I think it’s so important to continually update the columns I’ve written in the past. Read more »

Virtually all of the sciences strive to help mankind progress. What’s more, the desire to learn new things and build upon the past is a deeply ingrained characteristic of being human. On the other hand, so is forgetting the past. A case in point is the way modern science views nutrition. Surely there must be a better way of eating than the example set by generations far removed from ours. We’re smarter these days! It’s like comparing one of the first automobiles to the all-terrain, automatic, computer assisted, hybrid vehicles of the present. Right? Not if you ask some truly progressive physicians such Dr. Richard Feinman and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Read more »

I was recently asked whether supplementing with calcium increases the risk of calcium deposits in coronary arteries. If the answer to this question is “yes”, then a good portion of modern society could be compromising its cardiovascular system in an attempt to ward off osteoporosis. In order to give an up-to-date and fully informed response to this inquiry I immersed myself in a number of medical studies that have explored this topic. Read more »

The topic of this week’s Twitter Thursday is the interplay between the body and mind. There is an erroneous perception out there that we have body related health issues and brain related health issues – the physiological and the psychological. However, an increasing body of research suggests that how we care for our body has both positive and negative consequences on many aspects of mental health and vice versa. Read more »

In the United States we’re very fortunate to have access to a wide variety of “dietary supplements” that can be acquired without a prescription. However, this same availability can foster a less than serious attitude towards supplements. Many times the result is wasted money when consumers choose products that are inappropriate for their individual needs. In other instances, there can be more profound consequences such as drug-nutrient or drug-herbal interactions and, possibly, even side-effects that are directly attributable to specific natural remedies themselves. Read more »

People visit this site daily from all corners of the world – from Canada to India and in between. If not for the World Wide Web, these readers would probably never know about me. The same can be said for my recent discovery of a truly unique individual in the field of integrative medicine, Nancy Onyett, FNP-C. Read more »

This past week I wrote a column featuring questions sent in by regular readers of this site. That blog inspired a whole new series of questions from other interested parties. My answers to today’s inquiries will touch upon several topics including the perplexing issue of middle-aged stomach fat, a natural intervention for multiple sclerosis and a complementary therapy that may help depressed patients avoid frequent relapses. Read more »

I’m a big fan of some of the cooking shows that have recently been popularized on cable and satellite television. I find it interesting to see how notable chefs reinvent classic recipes in order to set themselves apart from the culinary pack. One way they do so is by “deconstructing” a meal. This essentially entails shuffling around the typical ingredients contained in a popular or classic dish and presenting them in a new and interesting way. That’s what I’ve tried to do with this recipe that would be a delicious, but healthful appetizer or hors d’oeuvres. Read more »

This edition of Twitter Thursday truly embraces the concept of holistic wellness. Without a healthy body, you can’t expect to have a truly balanced mind. Likewise, a tormented spiritual life can offset many of the benefits of productive lifestyle choices such as eating nutritious food, getting enough sleep and proper stress management. It’s a question of symmetry. Find the areas of yourself that are out of proportion and augment them for improved health and quality of life. Several of my favorite “tweeple” have some thoughts about how to accomplish this goal. Read more »

Natural medicine provides real solutions for health issues that literally span a lifetime. In today’s column, I’ve collected several items from the scientific literature that will illustrate this quite clearly. As you probably know, my goal is to have you all share at least one of these news items with someone in your sphere of influence. But some of today’s content involves rather prickly topics such Alzheimer’s Disease, constipation, menopause and Parkinson’s Disease. I realize that it may not be possible to just come right out and offer up advice about these somewhat sensitive conditions. However there’s almost always a creative way to disseminate such information. Read more »

It’s a good thing that some scientists never paid attention when their mothers warned them not to play with their food as children. If they had, they may never have discovered that topically applied onions, soybeans and turmeric powder can demonstrably improve the appearance and cellular health of skin. Several new presentations at this year’s meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology explain the exact “hows and whys” of this phenomenon. Read more »

While preparing today’s column I did a search on the phrase, “differences between men and women”. Any guess on how many hits this query turned up? 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000? Try 17,700,000! One of the sites I stumbled upon contained a quote by the comedian Bill Cosby. He summed up the general sentiment conveyed by noteworthy figures throughout the ages: “Men and women belong to different species, and communication between them is a science still in its infancy”. I’m sure many of you nodded your head while reading that and with good reason. The tales my wife could tell! However, I believe our similarities far outnumber our differences. The same holds true if one were to examine the inner workings of the female and male body. Read more »