The Tukisenta tribe, residing in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, presents a fascinating case study in nutrition and health. Despite deriving 90% of their traditional diet from sweet potatoes, the Tukisenta people exhibit none of the chronic diseases that plague modern societies, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure. This fact would not have been surprising because, since the '90s, high carb-low fat diets have been most popularly recommended. However, this intriguing paradox challenges the newly prevailing "low carb" diet trend and raises important questions about the true culprits behind these health issues. In this post, I will cover their diet and a few other “extreme” traditional diets and discuss the real culprits behind the ever-increasing amount of chronic illnesses.
Read MoreIn today’s post, I will discuss how the mouth plays a significant role in the production of nitric oxide (NO) through a process called the enterosalivary cycle of nitrate. This process involves friendly nitrate-reducing bacteria in the oral cavity, predominantly on the tongue, which reduce dietary nitrate (NO3) from vegetables, meat, and drinking water to nitrite (NO2). The nitrite is then further reduced to NO, which helps regulate systemic blood pressure. This pathway highlights how important oral health is to cardiovascular health. But can mouthwash damage this process?
Read MoreIn a recent New York Times piece by Katie Baker, titled "Downsides For Plus-Sizers Who Size Down," the narrative unfolds around plus-sized influencers facing backlash from their community for losing weight. The author uses the term fat phobia several times. One poignant story is that of Dronme Davis, a beacon of body positivity, who shared her personal journey only to be met with hostility for becoming thin. Worse, she had to suffer criticism while experiencing an eating disorder relapse. This situation illuminates the nuanced and often polarized landscape of body positivity, where the intention to embrace all bodies somehow loses its inclusivity when those bodies change in ways that don't align with the expected narrative. This post will cover the ins and outs of the obesity epidemic, the body positivity movement, and how we can improve things.
Read MoreI have a morning routine that I've been doing for years, but I only recently shared it with a stranger while we were discussing our daily habits. It occurred to me that my routine is quite ritualistic and resembles a luxurious spa treatment. As I was describing my routine, I thought about how I sounded like Christian Bale's character, Patrick Bateman, from the movie American Psycho, when he described his morning routine and saw the humor in it. As much as I see the benefits to doing it, it also sounds comical, so I am going to share it in this post in hopes of amusing most of you and, maybe, enlightening some of you to some lesser-known health interventions. I hope you enjoy it.
Read MoreLast week, I discussed the importance of taking charge of your own health and promised to provide tips for maintaining your well-being. Now, let's explore some habits that might lead to poor health. If you want to be unhealthy, make sure you…
Read MoreI suffered from cold sores for my entire life. The things I noticed that brought them on for me were:
Sudden weather changes.
Too much sun exposure.
Lack of sleep.
Co-occurring illnesses like colds.
Nothing worked to prevent or treat them for me. Trust me; I tried everything.
Lifestyle Is the Best Prevention
Almost two decades ago, I changed just about everything in my life in an attempt to regain my health. I do not get Herpes Labialis cold sores anymore. I will talk about how I did it in this post. I will also talk about more conventional treatments as well.
Read MoreMany traditional ways of measuring your risk for having a heart attack are not nearly as accurate as many believe. For example, many believe that our total cholesterol and LDL are the best indicators for heart disease, but the association is weak. As far back as 1964, Garrett, Horning, and Creech found no definite correlation between serum cholesterol levels and the nature and extent of atherosclerotic disease. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The famous Framingham heart study concluded in 1977 that HDL was a much better predictor of heart disease than LDL, and total cholesterol was not associated with any risk. In 1997, The Lancet published a paper on the elderly that showed for each 18 mg/dl increase of cholesterol, the chance of death went down by 15%. Amazingly, they also found that mortality from cancer and infection was significantly lower among the participants in the highest total cholesterol category. We believe these readings to be the best way to predict heart disease because we have been told to. Today I will show you some more statistical hocus pocus that helped promote these tests, and tell you about a much more accurate one you should get.
Read MoreThe appearance of heart attacks in the early 1900s has also coincided with steep rises in type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, macular degeneration, and Alzheimer's; traditionally, processed carbohydrates and saturated fats get most of the blame. Before the early 1900s, most of these conditions were rare. As we will see, processed carbs were already a big part of our diets, but seed oils were introduced right when we started our trend towards all of these terrible conditions. I will cover the rise of vegetable oils in our diets, along with chicken fats, that parallel our rise in modern diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Read MoreEvery workday, I review my patients' medical histories. It is usual for most of them to have health issues. Upon reviewing their medical problems with them, I find that their lifestyles are frequently partially and sometimes wholly responsible for their poor health. Today I thought it would be good to do some statistics, and I want to share my results with you. You will probably be surprised how unhealthy we are. Before we continue, let me ask you a few questions. What percentage of Americans have an illness? What percent are on prescription medication? What percentage of us have allergies? What percent are overweight? How many missing teeth does the average person have? Ready for the answers? Make sure you are sitting down. The figures are not pretty.
Read MoreMore commonly known as canker sores, recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) can be quite a nuisance. Because the sores are associated with systemic inflammation, I believe that they can be preventable, and I have seen this first-hand in patients. Today I want to cover three important ways you can help prevent them. I also want to tell you about a surprising at-home treatment that has proven to be more effective than prescriotion medication.
Read MoreWhen tested, masks actually look very effective. The website called Smartairfilters.com is a treasure trove of information about air filtration systems and masks. They clearly show the effectiveness of masks, even the cloth home-made ones. Some of the better masks filter out 99.7 percent of all particles. With such convincing results, why do masks seem to be failing us? The paper entitled Masks Don't Work: A Review of Science Relevant to COVID-19 Social Policy may have the answer. They list numerous studies that all conclude that masks don't protect against contracting a whole host of illnesses. We will find out why in this post.
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