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News and ideas worth your attention.
Four decades of writing on living long and living well, with 1,000+ posts on functional and longevity medicine.
438 written by Dr. Frank Lipman
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Sep 2, 2019 · Nutrition5 Ways to Eat Healthy Fish Wisely and Eco-Consciously
Fish – that beautiful, edible gift from the sea. It’s an excellent health booster and the cornerstone of many a tasty meal. But, as the saying goes, you are what you eat, so eating the healthiest and most responsibly sourced fish possible is essential to extract maximum benefits. But eating fish is a tricky business — there are the issues of over-fishing, ecological impact and mercury levels to factor onto your plate as well.
Aug 26, 2019 · Nutrition5 Reasons To Avoid Factory Farmed Meats
For our grandparents’ generation, meat on the dinner plate was often more of treat than the multiple-times-a-day staple it’s become for many Americans. But cheap and plentiful meat has come at a health cost, thanks to large-scale feeding lots and industrialized meat production.
Aug 19, 2019 · Nutrition9 Spice Essentials – and 4 Grow-Your-Own Herbs
Anyone who knows me, knows that although I don't cook much, I love to eat, and I encourage everyone to do both, even if you’re not the greatest home cook (like me). Fortunately for me, my wife Janice is a whiz in the kitchen and I learn from her every time we are in the kitchen together. But, when it comes to spices, we’re almost equally matched, tossing in generous pinches of these wonderful ingredients not only to enhance flavor but also to support health.
Aug 12, 2019 · Gut HealthHeal Your Gut with Fabulous Fermented Foods
Everyone talks about fermented foods and by now you probably know you need them to help keep your gut healthy. But, let’s be honest here, are you actually eating your fair share? If not, you’re missing out on one of Mother Nature’s easiest gut health hacks!
Aug 5, 2019 · Nutrition6 Ways Upgrade Your Cooking Oils
Whether you’re a Michelin-starred chef or an utter kitchen novice, it’s essential to pick the right oils for the job. Some oils are all-purpose culinary workhorses, others should be reserved for special jobs, and some oils, when heat is added, become extremely toxic to the body. So, how to recognize the healthy from the not-so-much?
Jul 29, 2019 · Nutrition8 Ways to Eat Smarter When Eating Out
Let’s face it, we all enjoy eating out every now and then, some of us more than others. But for those who must eat out frequently due to work or travel, the lack of control over what’s on the menu can make good food choices a challenge – but it doesn’t have to be. Forewarned is forearmed so with a little planning and a bit of forethought, you can easily win the game of dining out.
Jul 22, 2019 · Gut HealthHow to Heal Leaky Gut and Repair the Gut Lining
For a lot of my patients, especially those dealing with digestive and autoimmune problems, what stands between them and feeling great is an insidious but fixable problem we in the integrative health world call ‘leaky gut,’ or gut ‘permeability.’ If low-grade ills are dragging you down, leaky gut should probably be on your radar…
Jul 15, 2019 · Nutrition5 Reasons Not to Sweat The Salt
For the last five or so decades, telling patients to cut way back on salt passed for medical wisdom. The message, most often delivered to the 40+ set or anyone with less than ideal blood pressure numbers, was simple: salt was the devil. But is that really true?
Jul 8, 2019 · Health & Wellness5 Weight Loss Myths to Bust Today!
Lots of people aren’t happy with theirs and everyone knows that too much of it literally weighs you down. However, not everyone realizes that the extra weight can also set the stage for most of the problems we are all trying hard to avoid: obesity, diabetes, dementia, cancer, the list goes on. My advice? To minimize the risk of developing these life-wrecking problems, start taking steps to drop the excess, and by that I mean slowly, sensibly and safely.
Jul 1, 2019 · Nutrition9 Thoughts on Upgrading Your Food Sources
Here in the land of plenty, quantity has long been king when it comes to food (The Big Gulp! The Big Mac! Super-size It!). And that, unfortunately, has made millions of Americans overweight, not to mention, sick and old before their time. How can we start reverse this health mess? By reinforcing the message that it’s the quality of our food that matters above all else. In this day and age, quantity is a killer.
Jun 24, 2019 · NutritionWhy It’s Worth Exploring a Low Carb Diet
One of the most common and health-undermining problems I see in my patients is eating too many carbs every day. And it’s a problem that’s hardly confined to my practice. The total amount of calories that Americans consume hasn’t appreciably gone up since the ‘80s when the national waistline began to dramatically expand...
Jun 17, 2019 · Health & WellnessGo Wild – and Take the Medicine That’s Just Outside Your Door
Not that long ago, mankind lived and worked mostly outdoors. Fast forward a few generations and now most of our time is spent almost exclusively indoors. By day, we’re sealed into windowless office cubes and by night, we’re holed up at home in a darkened room watching Netflix. We’re literally walled off from the natural world, not to mention other people.
Jun 10, 2019 · Healthy AgingLive Long and Well: Why Your ‘Healthspan’ (and Not Your 'Lifespan') Is What Really Counts
In the past half-century or so, the average American lifespan has pushed out from sixty-plus years to eighty-plus. And yet, as a recent piece in The New Yorker described, the buzz in research circles is about radically extending longevity with hi-tech interventions using stem cells or gene therapies. If we’re not thinking about how we can live as long as possible, in good health, then we’re missing the boat.
Jun 3, 2019 · NutritionSome Thoughts on Going ‘Keto’
Need a reason to consider ‘going keto’? It can help turn down the dial on a number of chronic health conditions – think hypertension, diabetes, obesity – no prescription necessary. Here’s the skinny on why this fat-burning way to eat is so effective – and what to expect if you’re considering making the switch.
May 27, 2019 · Healthy Aging10 Ways To Protect Your Brain and Keep Alzheimer’s At Bay
Far too many of us these days have had some experience with friends or loved ones who are dealing with Alzheimer’s and it’s heart-breaking physical, emotional and mental impact. Though many of us witness the disease at arm’s length, it’s hard not to think about the frightening specter of Alzheimer’s possibly affecting our own brains someday.
May 20, 2019 · Healthy AgingSlow The Aging Process Naturally with Help from Autophagy
In the wellness world these days, there’s a new(ish) concept, labeled ‘autophagy’ that’s changing the way we think about health. And it may just be the key to slowing-down the aging process, enhancing our capacity to live longer and better. Interested?
May 13, 2019 · NutritionWhy I recommend Intermittent Fasting and Time-Restricted Eating
Every day, we’re bombarded with the message: eat less, lose weight. Too bad, humans aren’t wired to voluntarily feel deprived all the time which is why standard-issue calorie-counting fails most dieters over the long haul. The truth is, more important than how much we eat is what we eat…
May 6, 2019 · Gut Health11 Ways to Love Your Microbiome
It turns out we have many more one-celled bacteria living inside the human body than we have human cells that make up our bodies – and most of them live in the gut. There, trillions of these “bugs,” collectively known as the microbiome, handle some pretty crucial functions that we couldn’t live without.
Apr 29, 2019 · Sleep4 Ways You’re Messing With Your Ability to Sleep
Why is it that so many of us have such a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep and reaping the restorative benefits of good, quality shut-eye? As I often tell my patients, one reason is that many of us are failing at sleep is because most of us are making sleep-stealing mistakes all day long, which wind up training our bodies how not to sleep well at night.
Apr 24, 2019 · SleepGet Your Groove Back
Why finding your body’s natural sleep cycle and circadian rhythms is the key to strength, vitality and wellness.
Apr 22, 2019 · Healthy Aging9 Ways to Boost Your Mitochondria, Increase Energy and Enhance Longevity
When patients tell me they’re feeling wiped out, exhausted and dragging through their days, often it’s because they’re not treating their mitochondria right. Most people don’t realize it but mitochondria play a massive role in their energy levels, how well their metabolism functions and even how much brain fog they deal with every day.
Apr 17, 2019 · Nutrition7 Reasons To Love Turmeric
I love herbs and spices, not only for their flavors but also for their medicinal effects. And if I had to pick one health all-star, it would have to be turmeric, the spice born of the curcuma longa plant that gives curries their rich golden yellow color. It’s more than just a tasty flavor-enhancer though.
Apr 15, 2019 · Nutrition8 Almost Instant Benefits of Ditching Sugar
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but sugar is truly rotten stuff. It’s the ultimate carb-bomb, that floods your system with nutrient-free calories and it doesn’t even fill you up! And potentially comes with a lifetime of health troubles, like weight-gain, high blood sugar, system-wide inflammation, and life-altering diseases.
Apr 10, 2019 · Health & Wellness12 Ways to Balance Your Hormones for Optimal Health
I see so many patients complaining of multiple symptoms like thinning hair, brittle nails, erupting skin, poor sleep, exhaustion, constipation, sexual or menstrual dysfunction and weight gain. These are all clues that can suggest hormonal imbalance – several different types.