In a previous health tip, I discussed what I considered to be the pointlessness of spending your hard-earned money seeing a specialist in anti-aging medicine. This tip is for those curious about anti-aging supplements. But first, a quick list of the current theories about why our bodies age: Genetic Genes are probably overrated, but if […]
Category: Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Vitamins, & Herbal Remedies
Nutritional counseling focuses on helping clients understanding foods and their role in preventive nutrition. Nutrition, supplements, vitamins and herbal remedies help achieve and maintain healthy body composition, (lean muscle-to-fat ratio) in order to improve health, manage disease, feel better, and reduce the risk of serious conditions.
St. John’s Wort as Effective as Pharmaceuticals for Mild Depression
Several years ago, the herbal antidepressant St. John’s Wort (SJW), best known for its excellent combination of effectiveness and absence of side effects, was dealt a serious and unfair blow by the US pharmaceutical industry. But there’s a hopeful end to this tip, so read on. In an example of how the industry’s greed will […]
Preventing Flu
Click here for the Health Tip link. The advice in this health tip works for preventing virtually all virus infections, including the flu. Of the 150,000 genetic variations of mushrooms on our planet, it’s guesstimated that about 5% have useful medicinal properties. Of these, we know something about just a scant handful. Like every other […]
Name-That-Food Quiz
Today’s food quiz comes from Alice Henneman, dietitian at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in Lancaster County. Thanks, Alice.
Vitamin D, Part 2
Last time we talked about the Vitamin D Council and its research on vitamin D deficiency. Today I’ll add some observations from the front lines of doctoring, as well as my updated recommendations on supplementing with D.
Vitamin D – Again
Nutritionally oriented physicians agree that the hottest topic over the last couple of years has been vitamin D.
Travel Snacks
If you travel at all, you don’t need me to describe the dismal food options at most airports. Yes, there are occasionally some decent choices, but what to do in the face of cinnamon buns, cold white-bread lunchmeat sandwiches, and mini-pizzas?
Basic Foods for Cupboard, Fridge, and Freezer
When a young family member set up life in his first apartment, the inevitable shopping list for stocking the kitchen posed a good question. Just what are the basics you need to function day-to-day and meal-to-meal?
Melatonin for Mild Cognitive Impairment
I doubt the subscription list of the Journal of Pineal Research is significantly beyond the high two digits, but it did contain the following nugget.
Something New for Weight Loss
Click here for the original post. Even though I’m a doctor who specializes in nutritional medicine, the article in The Journal of Nutrition was a technically difficult read. It discussed how combining the antioxidant resveratrol (the compound found in grapes, purple grape juice, red wine, peanuts, and certain berries) with genistein (a soy isoflavone) reduced […]
Q&A: Vitamin E and Heart Attacks
Click here for the original post. Q: I just read in Consumer Reports that vitamin E doesn’t help prevent heart attacks. Is this true? If so, is there any reason to take E? A: As early as 2001, clinical studies around the world were beginning to cast some doubt on the effectiveness of vitamin E […]
Fast Food Favorites: Salmon in a Pouch
Click here for the original post. Here’s a fast-food favorite that’s new to us: skinless, boneless Alaskan salmon in a pouch. No liquid to drain and no cans to open, making it an utterly convenient lunch or snack food. It makes an easy dinner too. Several brands offer this presentation. One we see here in […]
Antioxidants and Exercise
Click here for the original post. If you study nutritional medicine long enough, some concepts make good intuitive sense, but then you find nobody has done a study to verify the assumptions. It’s always struck me that if you did aerobic exercise–you know, the huff-puff of jumping jacks or other high-intensity activity–you’d get a greater […]
Glandular Therapies
Click here for the original post. A surprising number of so-called alternative therapies actually have their roots in conventional medicine. For example, reflexology, originally called Zone Therapy, was first discovered by an ear, nose, and throat specialist who used pressure from rubber bands applied to the fingers and toes for surgical anesthesia. “Bach” of Bach […]
A Solid Thumbs-Up on Nutritional Supplements
Click here for the original post. Every morning and evening for more years than I like to ponder, I reach for my two vitamin trays (yes, I need two), mentally check that I’m not taking them on an empty stomach, and dutifully swallow my eighteen pills and capsules, plus an aspirin. That’s 37 a day. […]
Nutritional Research: Busy Month
Click here for the original post. I’ve had the feeling recently that everybody’s getting tired of prescription medications. To begin with, we’re taking far too many unsavory chemicals for problems mostly attributable to our unhealthful lifestyles–controlling adult-onset diabetes, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, cooling heartburn, sedating our stress-laden lives. And did I mention side effects? […]
Vitamin D and Your Heart
I’ve written quite a bit on the beneficial effects of vitamin D, from building bones and helping with fibromyalgia to preventing cancer–click here and scroll down on the Health Tips menu for previous articles.
D-ribose: New Supplement of Note
Any primary care physician will tell you the number one symptom that prompts a visit to the doctor is fatigue, expressed as “I’m tired all the time,” “I crash at three in the afternoon,” or “My get up and go just got up and went.”
Nature’s Apothecary: Valerian for Calm and Better Sleep
Using the herb valerian medicinally goes back to ancient Greece. By the 19th century, valerian was regularly found in pharmacies as a medication for both anxiety and insomnia, essentially the Valium of those days.
Q&A: Complex Carbohydrates
Q: Would you review again why we should eat complex carbohydrates and define what they are? Thank you.