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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.
451 written by Dr. Frank Lipman
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Jan 22, 2024 · Healthy Aging6 Ways Your Biological Age Matters More than the Number of Candles on Your Cake
When we think about age, we should be thinking of it in terms of two numbers: your actual chronological age and what researchers and some forward-thinking clinicians are now calling “biological” age, which captures the differences in how our bodies change over time. The good news? Medical science is in the first stages of being able to measure the biological processes that underlie aging, and clinicians – myself included – who embrace “longevity medicine” and can use that information to tailor therapies and target lifestyle upgrades to slow that process down.
Jan 15, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Thoughts on How AKG Can Make Aging Better – and Slower
Pharmaceutical drugs. They are, for better or worse, just about everywhere these days, and while they have their place, they’re also wildly over-prescribed – blunt instruments that can sometimes create more problems than they solve. That’s why I’m always curious about promising alternatives and excited by the growing research into natural compounds – and one candidate that may be able to keep health moving in a positive direction is something called ‘alpha-ketoglutarate’ or ‘AKG – which can help the body restore itself when it begins to run down.
Jan 8, 2024 · Movement24 Ways to Ditch Sugar in 2024 (and Beyond)
In honor of 2024, I’ve put together my 24-point list of tips for slaying the sugar monster once and for all. Here’s where to start.
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 11, 2023 · Gut Health15 Everyday Ways to Keep Constipation At Bay
Constipation. It’s a punchline of a word that can set off giggles, but when you’re experiencing it, it’s anything but funny. Uncomfortable and unpleasant, constipation gets in the way of normal life, leaving you wanting to eliminate the problem as quickly as possible. And while occasional constipation isn’t that unusual, frequent bouts are. They’re also your body’s way of letting you know it’s time to pay more attention to how you’re treating it, what you’re putting in it and what may be missing. Think of constipation as a message, and if you choose to ignore it, chronic gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea, IBS, leaky gut and inflammation are very likely to follow.
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.
Nov 13, 2023 · Health & Wellness7 Ways to Put Vitamin D to Work for Your Winter Wellness
Ah, winter. Like it or loathe it, there’s no denying, it’s heading our way. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, sunlight will soon be in short supply. Not great news for our bodies which need sunlight to help us produce our own vitamin D supplies, but an...
Nov 6, 2023 · NutritionTap Into the 7 Amazing Health-Saving Properties of Apigenin
Safe to say, as a person who’s had the great good fortune to be on this earth for a few decades, with each passing year, on both a personal and professional level, I’ve grown increasingly interested in the idea of how to do aging better. While there’s no way to stop...
Oct 30, 2023 · Relaxation9 Ways Conscious Breathing Instantly Upgrades Every Aspect of Your Health
You don’t need to be a meditation guru or yoga practitioner to tap into the power of the breath. Conscious breathing is easy to learn and can be practiced anywhere anytime. In just a few breaths, wonderful mind/body changes start to happen as the body’s relaxation response kicks in. Those escalating emotions begin their descent as blood pressure and heart rate start to slide back down to a healthier range as you activate the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest-and-digest system which counterbalances the fight-or flight response). The result? Improved cardiovascular health, immune function, possibly better longevity and numerous other benefits. My advice? Start breathing!
Oct 23, 2023 · Health & WellnessDr. Frank’s Fall Fortification Plan: 19 Ways to Stop Winter Ills Before they Start
Though we’re still a few weeks away from winter’s official start, seasonal ills are on the march, so the smart money is on prepping your body for the onslaught. The mission? To make yourself an inhospitable location for viral and bacterial opportunists attempting to take up residence – and to strengthen all your defenses so you can repel colds, flu, RSV and whatever Covid-19 variants may pop up over the next few months. How hard seasonal ills will hit this year is anyone’s guess, but now – not November or December – is the best time to focus on building up your resistance. Here’s where to start…
Oct 16, 2023 · Gut HealthHow to Manage The Six Microbiomes That Keep You Well
What researchers and the wellness community are increasingly coming to appreciate is that the human body is not just made up of human cells and a bunch of bacteria in the gut. We are a collection of microbiomes. Humans and the bacteria that live inside us co-evolved over the millennia, one giant quid pro quo – our bodies provided the bugs with a moist, warm home, complete with a steady food source, and they sustain us in a variety of ways, most numerously and elaborately in the gut. But there are 5 more less talked about but fundamental microbiomes in your body to also pay attention to if you wish to stay well.
Oct 9, 2023 · Healthy AgingAnti-Aging with Spermidine – and How It Can Save Your Brain, Heart, and Youth
Sometimes I come across cutting edge information about health therapies that just excites me, and ‘spermidine’ is a case in point. If your first response is: “what the heck is that?” you’ve got plenty of company, even though it was first discovered by the inventor of the microscope, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, way back in 1678. But only recently have scientists come to appreciate that this compound plays a valuable role in all sorts of key physiological processes and anti-aging, which, no matter your years, is a fascinating proposition.
Oct 2, 2023 · Health & Wellness30 Timely Tips to Send Autumnal Allergies Packing
For millions of people, autumn, perhaps the most gorgeous time of the year, can be a season to brace for rather than embrace. Experienced through a pair of itchy, watery eyes and a sneezy nose, the charms of the season’s colors and warm days and cool nights can be elusive. The good news is, you can tamp down much of the allergy-induced misery if you get on the defensive early in the season with a multi-pronged plan of action. So, instead of bombing your system with brain-fogging, sleep-inducing over-the-counter and prescription drugs, I advise my patients to try a more holistic approach so they can autumn with a clearer head and less wheezing and sneezing.
Sep 25, 2023 · Gut Health5 Things You Need to Know About Leaky Brain – and How to Prevent It
Here’s a new one for you: leaky brain and it’s a syndrome that everyone who has a brain needs to be aware of. Integrative doctors call it “leaky brain” and it’s remarkably similar to leaky gut but, just like the name says, at the level of the brain. The two conditions often feed off each other. Taken together, leaky brain and gut give us a much fuller picture of how a bad diet and too much stress conspire to make us feel and look less than our best, pushing us away from optimal health and towards chronic disease.
Sep 18, 2023 · Healthy Aging13 Ways Peptides Make Vibrant Health Happen
Safe to say, just about all of us want to remain as vital as possible for as long as possible. To help our bodies do that, our cells, organs and systems need to work in concert, to ‘talk’ to each other to keep everything running smoothly. Helping to keep that communication moving along are peptides, natural signaling agents which go to work inside in our cells and have a host of positive effects on our physiology. In short, they help make good health things happen throughout the body and it’s a big reason why I’m such a fan of putting peptides to work with a number of my patients.
Sep 11, 2023 · Healthy Aging6 Things to Know About the “Miracle” Drug Ozempic And Its Weight-loss Cousins
Ozempic and a handful of similar drugs have been grabbing countless headlines these days, marketed as ‘miracle drugs’ to millions of people who are struggling with weight problems, not to mention diabetes, which these drugs were originally designed to treat. But are these drugs right for you?
Sep 4, 2023 · Nutrition7 Great Vegetables That Are Even Healthier When Cooked
As everyone (hopefully) knows by now, fresh, colorful vegetables are the cornerstone of a healthy diet. Simply put, your body thrives on the real, close-to-the-vine stuff. When it comes to veggies though, one question patients often ask is, which is better – raw or cooked? And the answer is, both have their merits, though it does depend quite a bit on the individual vegetable. For some, heating will destroy certain vitamins and phytonutrients, and with others, heating will amp up the nutritional haul, unleashing their full powers and making them easier to digest.
Aug 28, 2023Get Your Energy Back Quick – with CoQ10
When it comes to optimal health, everyone’s looking for a magic bullet – one that neutralizes free radicals, staves off disease, preserves organ health and rejuvenates our bodies. Turns out there is one. The cool thing is, it’s already inside of us. It’s called CoQ10 and our bodies make it. Not so cool is the fact that our bodies don’t make quite enough of it to power us through our whole lives as vigorously as we’d like – yes, aging can be a drag, literally, in this case, on your energy. So what’s the workaround? Getting more of this incredibly helpful substance into your life – stat!
Aug 21, 2023 · Healthy AgingMy 7 Point To-Do List for Aging Well – and Slowly!
One of the most frequent questions I get from my patients is: “How do I slow down aging?” I get it. Nobody wants to look, and more importantly, feel like they’re getting old. And by “getting old,” they mean losing the spark and sparkle and wrinkle-free skin they may have taken for granted in their twenties and thirties. What I tell them is, if you follow some basic rules of slowing down aging, you’ll help take care of the wrinkles on the outside of you at the same time you’re addressing the wrinkles on the inside – dysfunctions in the way your metabolism, cardiovascular system, immune system and your brain work, in other words the big things that can reduce both the quality and the quantity of your years on the planet.
Aug 14, 2023 · Health & Wellness9 Ways to Tame Anxiety Naturally
To put it mildly, we live in an anxiety-triggering era which can do a number on your mental and physical health. With life in an almost constant state of rapid, and occasionally head-spinning change, it can be a challenge for even the mentally healthiest among us to keep anxiety at bay. Doom and gloom flooding the news, social media and our everyday conversations, saturating our psyches 24/7, small wonder people are on edge these days. The good news is that while anxiety may be almost impossible to completely avoid, there are a number of toxin-and-drug-free non-addictive ways to tame the beast. Here are a few of my favorite healthy approaches to help take it down a few notches.