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Four decades of writing on living long and living well, with 1,000+ posts on functional and longevity medicine.
134 written by Dr. Frank Lipman in Health & Wellness
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Jun 29, 2026 · Health & WellnessCalm In A Capsule: What Ashwagandha Can Do For Body And Mind
Ashwagandha, a mainstay of traditional Ayurvedic Indian medicine has been prescribed for a few thousand years to treat physical and mental fatigue. And over the past decade or two, Western researchers have been measuring its benefits across multiple health domains: stress-reduction; mood; sleep; brain; hormones; even physical strength. Pretty impressive for a shrub (technical name: Withania somnifera) grown all over Asia, the Middle East and Africa, whose Sanskrit name, Ashwagandha, translates roughly to “smell of the horse.”
Apr 20, 2026 · Health & Wellness21 Simple Ways to Minimize Microplastics for Better Health Now — and Later
Plastic used to mean progress. Cheap. Convenient. Everywhere. Now scientists are finding fragments of it in our air, our food, our water — and even inside the human body. Microplastics and nanoplastics have been detected in blood, lungs, placenta, and brain tissue. Early research links them to inflammation, hormone disruption, and possible cardiovascular and neurological risks. While the science is still evolving, one thing is clear: exposure is widespread. The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your life to make a difference. A few smart shifts in your kitchen, laundry room, and daily habits can meaningfully reduce your plastic load — and support your long-term health.
Mar 9, 2026 · Health & WellnessThe Big Power of Small Doses: Optimizing Health with My Microdosing Top 5
“Less is more.” That’s hardly the usual refrain of conventional Western medicine, which likes to prescribe powerful pharma drugs at relatively large doses to knock out symptoms. Unwelcome side effects are tolerated (by the doctor anyway) if they seem manageable. Well, in the past few years, however, a whole new, and smaller, world has opened up, one prescribing (mostly) prescription drugs at either “microdose” or much smaller than full-strength levels, not to treat full-blown disease, but to gently nudge key biological systems in a healthful direction.
Dec 22, 2025 · Health & WellnessReaders’ Choice: 15 Favorite Lipman Posts of 2025
As a doctor, educator, and lifelong health and longevity advocate, my mission is to help patients and health-conscious readers understand not just the science behind longevity, but the simple, practical actions that can profoundly influence how long and how well one can live with vitality. As 2025 winds down, I want to revisit and share a few of my site’s top posts—the ones that struck a chord with readers, and, in their own different ways, helped shape the global conversation around healthspan and longevity.
Jul 21, 2025 · Health & Wellness14 Ways Embracing Optimism Enhances Health and Longevity
Embracing optimism helps you to become more resilient, engaged, connected, and just plain happier. What all that adds up to is being able to stay buoyant, even in tumultuous times. Sure, it also helps you better deal with the ‘now,’ but it more importantly also supports your health and longevity over the long haul. Whatever your reasons for embracing it, keep in mind, optimism is not about ignoring life’s difficulties. It’s about training your mind to see opportunities, cultivate joy, and light your way towards a brighter future.
Jun 9, 2025 · Health & Wellness8 Ways Morning Sunlight Effortlessly Boosts Health Head to Toe
More than simply a pleasant visual reminder that a new day has begun, morning light delivers a host of benefits that help enhance both your physical and mental health, with minimal effort on your part. (Think no pain, much gain.) In effect, morning sunlight is nature’s alarm clock that acts as a daily, full-body reset. Recent studies continue to shed light on how early-day sun exposure positively influences multiple bodily systems and functions, from hormone regulation and circadian rhythm to digestion and immunity, so I urge you to make a little space to let the sun shine in every day.
Feb 24, 2025 · Health & WellnessAcetyl-L-carnitine Puts Better Brain Health, Mood and Energy on Your Agenda
As the chemical first cousin of L-carnitine, which you’ve probably heard of, acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) has been steadily building up a track record of research that’s making the health and longevity world stand up and take notice. While both forms of carnitine are intimately bound up in the body’s production of energy inside the cell’s powerplants, the mitochondria, the acetyl version is better absorbed in supplement form and has been found to have more significant effects “above the neck,” on cognitive and mental health especially. So, if you’re interested in upgrading and possibly extending your healthspan and lifespan (carnitine levels decline with age!) it’s time to get to know ALC better.
Feb 17, 2025 · Health & WellnessHow Chemicals are Making Us Fat and Sick – and 14 Tips to Combat Them
Chemically speaking, the world we’re living in is something of a minefield. Toxic man-made chemicals are everywhere, in the food we eat, the air we breathe and the indoor and outdoor environments we inhabit. They are so pervasive that it’s essential that you protect yourself from the onslaught, minimize your exposure and steer clear of as many of them as you possibly can. Why make the effort? Because the volume of toxic chemicals we’re dealing with daily are laying siege to our bodies, and particularly to our metabolic health, making millions of us fatter and sicker than any generation that’s gone before.
Dec 9, 2024 · Health & WellnessReader’s Choice: 13 Most Popular Dr. Lipman Posts of 2024
Over the past twelve months on the blog, we’ve covered a lot of longevity-focused and anti-aging ground! Each post has been about exploring compelling health and longevity pathways and connecting with readers. Some articles emerged as clear favorites, sometimes to my surprise. What made it to the top of the anti-aging must-read list? Posts on maintaining brain health, heart health and managing metabolism ranked high, while posts on red light therapy and biohacking followed close behind. It’s tough for me to pick personal favorites, so I’ve left it to the readers to decide – and here are their 13 top choices for 2024. Enjoy!
Oct 21, 2024 · Health & Wellness9 Essential Stress Reduction Tips and Techniques for High Anxiety Times
Be it situational or chronic, we all know that stress brings with it some significant, health-torpedoing downsides, making our approach to how we manage stress more mission critical than ever. Managing stress well starts with reminding yourself there are many ways to diffuse it, and being conscious of all we can do to release stress quickly and in healthy ways. Though avoiding stress altogether is virtually impossible, the key to doing it well is to pack your mental health toolbox with as many stress-busting techniques as possible, so you can tap into them whenever you feel stress levels start to rise.
Oct 7, 2024 · Health & Wellness10 Ways to Mind Your Mental Health and Heart Connection
By now, regular visits to our primary care doc have made most of us aware of the obvious cardiovascular disease risk factors, things like high Apolipoprotein B, high blood pressure, high blood sugar. But what often gets ignored is our mental health which, the most recent research is making clear, is a major part of the heart disease story and indeed may be what’s helping make the conventional risk factors so toxic in the first place. Mental health issues can drive up heart risk directly, as is the case with blood pressure, or indirectly, when they give rise to bad lifestyle choices which eat away at heart health in different ways.
Sep 2, 2024 · Health & Wellness11 Ways a Balanced HPA Axis Changes Your Health Forever!
Let’s face it, just about all of us hate the feeling of being under too much stress. Not only because being stressed feels lousy in the moment, but living with it, unrelieved, day in and day out, is a major starting point for physical dysfunction and disease, with ripple effects felt across virtually every cell in your body – a big potential downside to all that interconnection. One way to understand what’s going on? Technically speaking, it’s the disruption of the ‘HPA’ or ‘hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal’ axis, which refers to the ongoing conversation between different body systems that, between them, regulate the response to stress, both acute and chronic. Learn to keep it on an even keel and you’ll be on your way to a much healthier, happier and, very likely, longer life.
Jul 15, 2024 · Health & WellnessThe Dangers of Forever Chemicals and 6 Ways to Avoid Them
For many years, we in the integrative medical community have known that toxic chemicals are something to avoid at all costs, the thinking being that the lighter our ‘toxic load’ and the fewer industrial chemicals we ingest, the better and more sustainable our health will be. That’s still the idea. But over the last few years, the unsettling news about the pervasiveness of ‘forever chemicals’ or PFUAS (aka ‘per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) has brought a new awareness about just how difficult they are to avoid. In short, they are everywhere and stemming the tide will take some doing – both on a personal and global level.
Jun 10, 2024 · Health & Wellness6 Ways Anger Torpedoes Your Immunity – and 7 Ways to Fix It
Anger. Whether you show it to the outside world or not, whether it seems like an appropriate response to a difficult set of circumstances or not, in health terms, anger is mostly a negative. What makes it especially so is anger’s ability to endanger your health by severely undercutting your immunity, aka your ability to stay well. And, as you age and immunity naturally wanes, that’s the last thing you want to do. What’s the connection between anger and immunity? A lot more than you may realize, so here is some food for thought on the topic, plus a few ways to diffuse anger when it comes knocking.
May 6, 2024 · Health & Wellness7 Types of Rest You Really Need for Longevity
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that self-care isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. And while self-care may mean different things to different people, the need for adequate rest is universal. To live well and feel well for as long as possible, it’s essential to bake rest into your daily routine, because you can’t really bank or stockpile rest; it needs to be a daily habit. Most people equate rest solely with sleep, but there's a good bit more to it. To truly thrive over the long-haul, be advised that rest is more than just sleeping soundly through the night (though that’s a good start). Fact is, rest has many faces, and there are seven types of rest you need to get to know better.
Feb 12, 2024 · Health & WellnessMeet Metformin – and It’s Anti-Aging Superpowers
By now, my readers may be aware of my interest in longevity-focused medicine, particularly in light of all of the exciting anti-aging and longevity research and promising treatments making news almost every day.
Feb 5, 2024 · Health & Wellness9 Ways to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude
Particularly these days, life is not without its challenges. We live in a time of global upheaval and chronic anxiety, and the prospect of navigating through it can seem daunting.
Jan 29, 2024 · Health & Wellness10 Tips to Banish Blood Pressure Problems Naturally
So, you go for an annual check-up and your primary care doc slaps on the blood pressure cuff and then delivers the bad news. Your blood pressure, which has been steadily ticking up for years, has now crossed the threshold, into either borderline or bona fide hypertension.
Jan 1, 2024 · Health & WellnessInspiring Words of Wisdom to Guide Your New Year
Welcome to 2024!
Dec 25, 2023 · Health & WellnessTOP 10 MOST POPULAR BLOGS OF 2023
Now’s a great time to look back at 2023 and think about what you want for the New Year.
Dec 18, 2023 · Health & WellnessRediscovering Tea Tree Oil – and 8 Reasons to Stock Up
The deeper you go exploring the ins and outs of your own health, making health-enhancing tweaks becomes second nature.
Dec 4, 2023 · Health & Wellness5 Ways Prebiotics Help Supercharge Your Health From Head to Toe
Regular readers of this blog are likely familiar with the idea of eating ‘probiotic’ foods and, when needed, also adding a probiotic supplement to the mix to support the health of your microbiome, aka, the community of billions of friendly bacteria that live in your gut.
Nov 27, 2023 · Health & Wellness9 Ways to Grow Your Friend Group at Any Age
There’s another key element that often gets overlooked in the anti-aging game – and that’s emotional well-being. Numerous studies have shown that neglecting emotional health, particularly when it comes to social connection, can speed up aging. Here’s some background on why you need to connect with others and how to grow your tribe no matter what your age –and a few pointers on how to go about it.
Nov 20, 2023 · Health & WellnessClean and Green Tips for Taming Household Toxins
Back in the day, many of us had concerns about office air quality – breathing in toxins eight hours a day in our hermetically-sealed downtown office cubes.