I grew up on the shore, fishing on the bay and ocean, so I have always loved to eat seafood and spend time on the beach. I spent the Memorial Day weekend on a local barrier island and was surprised to see an oyster vending machine outside a market. We purchased a box, ate half of them raw, and cooked the other half on the grill. I had never seen anything like it and was very impressed with the concept. I eat oysters every chance I get, Oysters are one of the most nutrient-dense foods, and in this post, I will talk about the incredible oyster and why you should include them in your diet.
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 MoreColostrum is something that many people are totally or partially unaware of. If you have heard of it, it may have only been because you or someone you know had a child and had to deal with lactation. Colostrum is the first yellowish fluid produced after childbirth. It is pure for about the first four days of lactation, and then it is slowly replaced by milk over several weeks. The early milk that still contains some colostrum is called transitional milk. All lactating mammals produce colostrum. Research has proven that pure colostrum promotes growth and health in all newborn mammals, including humans.
Bovine (from cows) colostrum is consumed by some traditional cultures and is becoming more popular as a supplement for its supposed health benefits. This post will cover what it is, what it does for newborn babies, and its use for adults.
Read MoreMicronutrients are the smaller building blocks, such as minerals and vitamins, we need to sustain life and have optimal function. Micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) are quite common worldwide. Iron, iodine, folate, vitamin A, and zinc deficiencies are the most common MNDs. They are responsible for perinatal complications, poor growth in children, and increased mortality and morbidity. 1 They can be just as devastating to adults. This post will describe the deficiencies, their symptoms, and how to correct them.
Read MoreIt may surprise you, but I would not wish a denture on my worst enemy. This may seem hyperbolic, but it is accurate-I wish good health over less-than-perfect treatment for everyone. I make them, but I warn patients that as much as they can replace teeth and improve appearances and chewing, they have many pitfalls. I warn patients that they may appreciate appearing as if they have all of their teeth, but there will be a host of problems with them. In short, the best dentures in the world will still have numerous problems; they may marginally function as natural teeth. This post covers the good, bad, and ugly of dentures.
Read MoreWelcome to part five. The use of toothpicks is uniquely human. The famous dental anthropologist Peter Unger discovered tiny striations in teeth that could not be caused by chewing. He concluded that the marks could only have been caused by the overuse of toothpicks made of hard materials like bone. He also drew a parallel between tool use and the introduction of meat to humans' diets. Ungar said toothpick use is one of the first lines of evidence from the hominid fossil record that shows our genus consuming significant amounts of meat in the ancient past. Tooth picking likely served to remove food, especially meat, but it caused visible damage. To quote him, "Teeth are not well designed for eating meat, so our early ancestors had to use toothpicks." This post will cover the evidence and discuss the proper use of toothpicks.
Read MoreThe carnivore diet is based on eating animal-based foods as much as possible. In some of my previous posts, I have listed supporting evidence that we tolerate animal-based foods well. Our highly acidic stomachs, longer small intestines, and lack of a cecum are a few patterns we share with carnivorous-leaning mammals. Additionally, fat cells have two patterns: one indicating herbivory and one carnivory. It turns out that humans have the carnivorous pattern.
Read MoreMy father had been hospitalized several times recently and lost significant leg strength. Lately, he was put on hospice due to heart failure, and his legs ceased to be of any use after about two weeks. After living a great life, he sadly passed on March first, 2023, at 93, three days before his 94th birthday. He had a massive heart attack when he was about 52. His heart was so damaged they gave him poor odds of survival. They told him he would die young, even if he survived the next few weeks. They told him not to exert himself. He complied initially but then started lifting weights and walking. He regained his youthful vitality, which kept him alive for the next 42 years. One of his last lessons was about being confined to bed and its many downsides, even if it is sometimes unavoidable. This post is dedicated to him.
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 MoreMy father is almost 94. When he was in his early 50s, he had a massive heart attack and has had heart problems since that time, including heart failure. Sadly, he followed all of the advice to avoid heart attacks but still had a few. I will explain some of the reasons in this post.
Read MoreThis post contains the slides for my presentation at The Southwestern Society of Pediatric Dentistry. It is intended for the attendees, but all are welcome to view it and share it. Enjoy.
Read MoreYou may have heard that a piece on the TV program called 60 Minutes recently sparked some controversy. A doctor stated that obesity is a brain disease, and the largest contributor to obesity is genetics. To quote her, "That means if you were born to parents that have obesity, you have a 50-85% likelihood of having the disease yourself even with optimal diet, exercise, sleep management, [and] stress management..." She tells us that lifestyle won't make a difference for genetically flawed people.
The 60 Minutes Program then segues into the new weight-reducing medications, stressing how effective they are, potentially leaving the audience with four takeaways: 1) Obesity is a brain disease. 2) Obesity is genetic 3) Lifestyle changes won't work for the genetically flawed. and 4) Drugs are better than lifestyle changes, especially for the genetically flawed. This post will address these issues and more.
Read MoreEvolution takes place because we successfully adapt to changes in our environments over vast amounts of time, leading to the false belief that evolution occurs only when the environmental change is stable over time so that the adaptive changes can take hold and the species can flourish. After all, if the adaptative pressure goes in one direction and then reverses course, the adaptive changes might never happen or become maladaptive and cause extinction. But the climatic record during human evolution has been extremely variable, especially in the recent past, so it does not support the idea that environmental stability produced our adaptation. This post will discuss the accepted definition of ice ages, glaciations, interglacials, and their effect on human evolution.
Read MorePoor sleep is often caused by poor breathing, which, in turn, is often caused by poor jaw development. In 2016, the American Heart Association released a "scientific statement" on the connection between poor sleep and heart disease; you can find it here. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine states that severe sleep apnea doubles one's chance of dying from heart disease. I have spoken at length about the connection between facial development and obstructive sleep apnea before. In my post today, I am going to focus on the pressure changes to the body that sleep apnea causes and their consequences.
Read MorePeople with properly developed faces will always have straight teeth, room for wisdom teeth, and superior beauty. Sadly, most of us have some level of crowding and lack of jaw space for wisdom teeth today, meaning almost all of us to have deficient jaws. 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 it is one of the major contributing factors to many, if not most, of our modern health problems; most of which originate in poor breathing from small airways.
I am writing this post as I fly back home from an amazing conference called Airway Palooza. I want to share some pearls of wisdom that can help you recognize if you have an airway problem and ways it can be addressed.
Read MoreI have been on the carnivore diet for almost three years. From the start, raw eggs have been a big part of my diet. My go-to recipe is one dozen yolks mixed with bone broth. It fits in a tall glass that I drink down each morning. Another way I consume my raw egg yolks is to mix them with water and honey. If this sounds strange, this post will clarify why I consider it an important part of my diet.
Read MoreWelcome to The Incredible Human Part 4. We usually consider animals' diets carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous. However, within the distinction of herbivores, we see further specializations. For example, frugivores eat fruits primarily, granivores eat grains and seeds, and folivores eat leaves. Humans are omnivores. But there is more to our dietary story. Just as herbivores can specialize as frugivores, granivores, folivores, or a combination, omnivores also specialize. And we have the most specialized diets in the animal kingdom. This post will discuss why our diets are so special.
Read MoreIn 1990, Bruce Ames, Margie Profet, and Lois Swirsky Gold found that Americans consume an average of 1.5 grams of natural pesticides produced by plants themselves daily. They noted that 52 of them had been analyzed in animal cancer tests, in which rodents are fed exorbitantly high doses to see if they developed tumors. 27 were found to be carcinogens! To repeat, I am speaking exclusively about the natural chemicals plants produce to avoid being eaten, not sprayed-on synthetic pesticides. Should we be concerned?
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I was interviewed on The Carnivore Cast, which is a podcast focused on the carnivore diet and lifestyle with practical advice from successful carnivores, citizen scientists, and top researchers answering your burning questions and meaty topics. The episode is now out. On it, we talk about my previous health problems, how I got into Paleo, functional medicine and dentistry, and finally, the carnivore diet. I also talk about why we don’t really need toothpaste and why we all have crooked teeth.
The site is the brainchild of Scott Myslinski, a really cool guy promoting optimal health through proper movement and, of course, the carnivore diet. He has tons of really good podcast guests, so check them out. Enjoy!
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On August 19th, I was fortunate to participate in an expert panel discussing how the modern world is distorting our faces, breathing, and metabolism. The panel was moderated by the incomparable author and speaker James Nestor who wrote the New York Times best seller Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. We were allowed a few minutes to present our area of expertise. First up was Siobhán Cooke, followed by Kevin Boyd, me, Robert Lustig, then Mike Mew. We discussed some of the causes, then discussed some fixes. Here is the presentation. Please like and share it so we can help stop our faces from distorting and improve our breathing and metabolism.
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