No one human trait can stand alone as a benchmark of health and esthetics, but many fields of science have concluded that quickly identifying healthy perspective mates has an evolutionary basis. Indeed, most of us can assess attractiveness only after a few seconds. Age, symmetry, strength, and skin tone imply good genes and a lack of disease. Both sexes prefer physically attractive mates and have preferences for the level of attractiveness sought in a potential partner. Teeth Loom large in our sexual appraisals of each other. In a recent study by the Invisalign company, 94% of respondents noticed the other person's smile upon meeting them for the first time. In addition, 84% thought that an attractive smile is important for considering marriage. Additionally, one-third would not consider matching their friends with someone with crooked teeth. This post will discuss what constitutes a sexually attractive smile, the different preferences between males and females, how to have a naturally sexy smile, and what to do if you don’t think yours is good enough.
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.
Read MoreToday we will discuss some of the environmental changes that have led to our shrinking faces, especially our jaws. Here are my slides for Why the Long Face? How the Modern World Changed Our Faces, Metabolism, and Breathing-and How to Fix it, so you can follow along and perhaps help you formulate questions for us.
Read MoreThis week, I was going to elaborate on a quote by Hippocrates that I had never heard, but when I searched for it online, there were so many good ones, and they were all gems. They speak for themselves. So I just decided to make shareable memes of my top ten. Feel free to download and share. Enjoy!
Read MoreI spend lots of time trying to relieve patients from painful teeth. Of course, there are numerous causes of tooth pain, but today, I want to focus on a prevalent and typically easy-to-treat one that has to do with the forces we place on our teeth called hyperocclusion. Hyperocclusion is when we generate forces that exceed the ability of our teeth and supporting structures. As I always say, teeth should glide together, not collide together. This post will discuss how it happens and what your dentist can do about it.
Read MoreI enjoyed talking to Cavin Balaster on his Adventures In Brain Injury Podcast. Cavin is a survivor of a terrible traumatic brain injury who has a book called How to Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair and a podcast about all things health related, especially how to have a healthy brain. We met in Austin at a charity for the Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund and immediately hit it off. When He asked me to do it, I was skeptical that I could contribute much to the subject of brain injury, but after speaking with Cavin for a few minutes, I was convinced I had something to offer. Cavin and I understand that good health has more to do with things like breathing, nutrients, sunshine, and connecting with one another, not pharmaceuticals and surgeries. Although the latter two items have their place, they should be rare, whereas lifestyle practices should be constant. We had a blast and could have spent all day talking about health.
Read MoreI will be one of the panel members at the next Ancestral Health Symposium (AHS) at UCLA on August 19 at 11:00 AM. The panel will discuss the reasons for our small jaws, breathing problems, and much more. There should also be ample time for questions at the end. So if you are interested in evolution, health, meeting great people and hearing cutting-edge talks on ancestral medicine, join us, and please come and say hello. Tickets are available through the AHS Website at ancestralhealth.org, where you can also see the three-day schedule for the event, from August 18 to 20. Use the promo code PRESENTERFRIEND for 10% off.
Read MoreRandomized control trials (RCTs) have long been considered the gold standard for determining the effectiveness of a drug, surgery, or other medical intervention. But observational studies, although long regarded as second-rate compared to RCTs, have contributed invaluable information to the medical sciences. Indeed, analyses of RCTs compared to observational studies have concluded that well-run observational studies are comparable. I will explain RCTs and observational studies later in this post, but first, I want to tell the story of John Snow and how he used his powers of observation to lower worldwide death rates, perhaps more than anyone in history.
Read MoreA few years back, I wrote about the negative health consequences of visceral fat, which is the kind of fat that surrounds our organs. Too much of it is bad for our health. I spoke about several ways to measure it, but I want to concentrate on one very easy and free method called the waist-to-height ratio. It is a simple and free method you can do at home to determine your health risk. I will tell you why it is so important and tell you how to calculate yours. For the math-challenged, I have a link to an automatic calculator.
Read MoreIn part three of my series about the incredible human, I am going to talk about our ability to create, interact, and enjoy music. Music is found in all human cultures and thus appears to be part of our biology and not simply a cultural phenomenon. Although many animals can perceive the components of music the way we do, at least some also enjoy similar aspects of sounds, musicality is strictly human. We think of birds as singing, but they are merely communicating using complex patterns of rhythm and pitch, much the way humans employ intonation while speaking. For instance, we may speak more quickly and louder when excited. Additionally, we raise the pitch of the final word when asking a question. But music composition, performance, and appreciation are strictly human phenomena. This post will focus on how music may have been with us since before speech and may be credited with helping us connect as social beings, among other benefits.
Read MoreIn my daily practice, I often find infected teeth that the patient is entirely unaware of. Most often, I find asymptomatic infections on radiographs (x-rays). Sometimes, I can see what appears to be a pimple on the gums adjacent to the tooth, usually at the level of the root tip. The pimple is usually on the cheek side (buccal). However, they are occasionally found on the tongue side (known as the palatal on the upper and lingual on the lower). Technically a pimple around a tooth is known as a dentoalveolar fistula. I will talk about what they are, how they form, what to do if you have one, and how to prevent them.
Read MoreToday, I would like to talk about a few other causes of poor sleep, especially in children and especially teens, as they normally have earlier school start times. According to numerous studies, people, including children and teens, who sleep less than five hours per night are more vulnerable to respiratory infections. But the bad news doesn't end there. Poor sleep can eventually lead to certain forms of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, depression and other mental disorders, and obesity. At the end of the post, I will cover some helpful tips to help us and our children to sleep better-especially our teenagers.
Read MoreWhy are so many Americans overweight or obese? Are we weak? Are we addicted to unhealthy foods? The answer is probably not. I took a look at how our food supply has changed over the years, and it may explain our ever-expanding waistlines. This post will cover the trends, investigate some of the science, and, finally, talk about what we can do to lose weight and become healthier.
Read MoreI usually spend my career focusing on the first part of our GI tracts-the mouth, but today I will talk about its far end. In 1971, D.P. Burkitt proposed that a lack of dietary fiber caused diseases such as diverticulosis, hemorrhoids, and colorectal cancer, and to this day, most people agree. 1 Furthermore, it is now widely accepted that dietary fiber is a necessary component of a healthy diet and is required for normal bowel movements. 2 In other words, we increase our chances of constipation if we don't eat enough fiber. The science refutes most claims that fiber is required to be healthy. Still, it also blames fiber for many gastrointestinal symptoms like constipation, bloating, GI bleeding, and straining to move one's bowels.
Read MoreI had the privilege of speaking with Casey Ruff last Monday on Boundless Body Radio. Casey and his wife Bethany have been transforming their clients’ health for well over a decade. We spoke about a variety of topics about our shrinking jaws, how to really care for our teeth, and other paleo functional dentistry-related topics. We had a very special guest along with us. We reveal the number one way to improve your health, mindset, and lifespan at the very end, so make sure you hear it! The episode will appear on Boundless Body Radio on June 10th, but you can listen to it here now!
Read MoreTraditional thinking views our bodies as vessels containing thousands of coordinated chemical reactions. While this is true, electromagnetic processes occur simultaneously but get less attention. The reality is that since the discovery of electricity and its cousin magnetism, scientists have been looking into how they interact with biological systems. The classic example of how the body uses chemicals to produce electrical impulses is our nervous system, but every cell does the same thing using electrical potentials. This post will give a little background on the biology of electromagnetism, how it relates to our cells and tissues, and, finally, some of the benefits of applying low levels of electromagnetic energy to optimize health. The technology is called pulsed electromagnetic field application.
Read MoreThis is the presentation I am giving today at PaleoFx in Austin Texas.
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