In the United States, data has consistently shown that individuals with a college education tend to live longer than those with only a high school education. A report from the National Center for Health Statistics found that in 2017, men with a college degree lived an average of 8.6 years longer than those with just a high school diploma, while college-educated women lived 4.2 years longer than their less-educated counterparts. The factors contributing to this disparity are multifaceted, with diet, lifestyle, healthcare access, and socioeconomic factors playing key roles. This post will cover some of the reasons why the disparity exists and what to do about them.
Read MoreThis post will relate to an encounter with one of my patients that recently made me very happy. When most patients come to me, they often assume that I am just like any other dentist. However, what they don't realize is that my practice is unique. I specialize in treating the root cause of gum disease, tooth decay, and facial development issues, taking a holistic approach that considers the entire body. This approach, which is often new and intriguing to them, sets my practice apart. Despite my recommendations, my free-range patients often continue with their unhealthy lifestyles. But I'm used to it. After all, people should be free to live their lives as they see fit. However, many of my patients implement my recommendations and transform their health. When I hear their stories, I am overjoyed.
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 MoreIt has been dogma that we need eight hours of sleep. Furthermore, the research shows that we don't get nearly that much. In fact, we miss the mark by almost one to two hours each night. Then comes summer, when we typically sleep one less hour than in winter. For those of us trying to maximize sleep, this all sounds disconcerting. I have encouraging news about newer sleep research that has shed some light on how much sleep we should get each night, especially in the summer.
Read MoreI have always preferred the warmer months to the colder, darker ones. Since I was a teen, I noticed I had less energy in the cooler, darker months and was sleepier. A few decades later, I noticed that I became less lean in the cooler months. No one would notice my condition because my energy levels are adequate and the extra weight is minimal, but I can see the seasonal difference in my body composition. My energy increases, and my leanness returns when the days lengthen, and it gets warmer. My transition to my more energetic, leaner self took longer this year. As always, I looked for a reasonable explanation for why I tend to gain some winter season weight, and why it stayed longer this year. This post will cover a few reasons for seasonal body compositional transitions and factors that can alter the normal process.
Read MoreAs part of patient care, I have conversations about the introduction of processed grains to our diets about 10,000 years ago and all the detrimental effects that came with it; tooth decay, gum disease, stunted growth, etc. I also discuss the introduction of industrially processed seed oils like corn, canola, and soy and their connection to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, inflammation, and more. A frequent response I hear is the phrase, "everything in moderation." I am unsure what they mean, and I wonder if they do either. I believe seeking moderation has risks. I suggest optimizing as a better approach to health. This post will cover the difference between the two and seven things we should optimize for health.
Read MorePhilosophers have long distinguished two basic forms of well-being: a hedonic form representing the sum of an individual's positive affective experiences and a deeper eudaimonic form that results from striving toward meaning and a noble purpose beyond simple self-gratification. It turns out, so do scientific researchers. There is robust scientific evidence that living a eudaimonic life extends life. This post will cover some of the science behind eudaimonia and how to achieve it.
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 MoreWe hunted and gathered food found exclusively in the outdoor environment. As such, we evolved to be outdoors in the Sun for much of the day. Therefore, the advice given by dermatologists to avoid the Sun runs contrary to the evolutionary evidence. New information about the human body's optical qualities is reshaping our stance against sunshine. Near-infrared (NIR) light penetrates deeply into our body, unlike UV and visible light. Evolutionarily, the human body has developed optical mechanisms to gather and localize NIR photons in the most sensitive areas of the human body: blood vessels, retina, brain, skin, and even the womb. Research has demonstrated that NIR stimulates the production of antioxidants deep within our cells at the sub-cellular level. We use the reservoir of antioxidants to enhance the body's ability to contend with changing conditions throughout the day. I will cover some amazing things light does for our health and how you can maximize your light exposure.
Read MoreI want to share a shocking brief digital simulation showing how our faces have been drastically shrinking over several hundred years. I got it from Dr. Michael Gelb DDS in NYC, who got it from best-selling author James Nestor. Please concentrate on the lower face; you will see how the jaws are shrinking and moving back toward the throat. This causes the tongue to partially or fully occlude the airway, especially when we sleep. You should also notice how the face is less attractive now. In fact, it is rare to see someone who has realized their potential for full facial development. People with properly developed faces will always have straight teeth, room for their wisdom teeth, superior beauty, and better health. Whatever they do for a living, they appear to be actors and models. Since most of us have underdeveloped faces, this epidemic has gone primarily unnoticed by us, including most physicians and dentists. This needs to change because, as you will see in this post, it is one of the major contributing factors for many, if not most, of our modern health problems.
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 most effective treatment for chronic conditions is diet and lifestyle intervention, which help restore normal hormonal and metabolic function. Even mildly abnormal glucose levels are an early warning sign for many chronic conditions, such as insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, mitochondrial health, blood vessel damage, heart disease, strokes, and brain health. Blood glucose measurements are one of the best ways to assess metabolic function and overall health. A fasting blood glucose test and the hemoglobin A1c level are two of the most common measurements doctors look at to evaluate your metabolism. Both of these measurements have limitations. Because they are one-time measurements, they fail to consider the bigger picture, miss fundamental problems, and are unreliable (specifically a1c). A better way to understand the dynamic nature of our blood glucose is a continuous glucose monitor, also called a CGM. In this post, I will l talk about the many benefits to using one.
Read MoreSleep is a significant component of health. Sleep disruption in adults leads to increased anxiety, pain, reduced quality of life, mood disorders, disturbances in thought processes, memory, and physical performance. Inadequate sleep impacts children and adolescents' psychosocial health, school, and sports performance, and risk-taking behaviors. In otherwise healthy individuals, long-term consequences of poor sleep include high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, heart disease, weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. One of the key ingredients to a good night’s sleep is the ability to lower our core body temperatures. This post will cover some of the science behind the sleep-temperature connection and talk about ways to help us cool down for optimal sleep.
Read MoreToday I am sharing a video about a child who was incorrectly diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD when his real problems were allergies and poor breathing that we call sleep disordered breathing. His mother describes a kind of domino effect that when recognized, is easily treatable. At my offices, we have teams of pediatric dentists, orthodontists, surgeons, orofacial myofunctional therapists, and lactation specialists to detect and treat these problems early. When needed, we refer to ENT, allergists, speech pathologists, and more. If more people were aware of the connection between childhood behavioral problems and sleep disordered breathing, millions of children would not suffer as they do. Please watch the video and share it; even if only one child is helped by your sharing, it will be worth it.
Read MoreToday I want to clarify a few misconceptions about how science classifies and describes the diets of animals, where we fit into the diet picture, and our evolutionary journey here. Interestingly, most omnivores specialize by being either closer to being almost entirely herbivorous or carnivorous. You may be surprised to see where we fall in the spectrum.
Read MoreAs an active clinician with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, I am always searching for new perspectives on our poor health. Sometimes I find antique descriptions of current health problems. I recently found and read a book by George Catlin on how our children can achieve beautiful faces and superior health by ensuring that they sleep with their mouths closed. I had thought this knowledge to be a recent scientific finding, so naturally, I was intrigued and read the book in a few short hours. I was highly impressed with the Native American wisdom he shared. Sadly, the knowledge was largely forgotten and is only followed by a few people today. Here's some of what I learned...
Read MoreInsulin promotes the uptake of glucose by cells and its storage as glycogen. The insulin and glucose tend to balance out in healthy individuals. In healthy individuals, our cells readily respond to insulin and quickly take up glucose. In many people the body produces insulin, but it is not enough to effectively keep up, and blood sugar rises. Most doctors focus on reading blood sugar levels to diagnose health problems. It turns out that high insulin levels precede high sugar levels, making it an excellent predictive test for disease.
Read MoreThe combination of obesity, specific heart-health markers, and some metabolic measurements are collectively known as metabolic syndrome. Essentially our metabolism has a direct impact on our overall health and heart health specifically. The health implications are dire, not just for our cardiovascular systems. With Covid-19, obesity is strongly associated with increased severity of COVID-19 infections, even in the absence of other underlying health issues. In this post, I have included an interactive guide to all of the steps you need to include to improve your looks, mood, and energy level. Your "body composition" will take care of itself as you focus on the things listed in the guide. Best of all, your chances of dying from disease and infection will diminish.
Read MoreAs many of you know, I started the carnivore diet on January 1, 2020, hoping to give it one year. The year sped by without me experiencing any significant issues being a carnivore. I cured two chronic orthopedic problems (thumb and elbow) and improved my body composition, sleep, mood, and more. I achieved near-perfect health and wellness. I decided to start adding plant-based items, including some alcohol back into my diet and see how I fared. My goal was to add variety to my diet, not to improve my health, as it was about as good as it gets. It went poorly. This post will cover what I learned about adding things back into my diet.
Read MoreAlmost half of the people in the U.S. do not meet the recommended amount of aerobic activity per week, so when I recently spent a week in South Beach, I was impressed at the number of people jogging outside in the balmy weather. Unfortunately, many joggers are hardly specimens of optimal health and remain so after many years of effort. Sadly, often running by itself proves to be little more than a waste of time, with zero results and increased injury rates. I want to muse a little on why that may be.
Read More