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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.
Sep 25, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - Improve Your Posture, Enhance Your Health
We often hear about the importance of good posture, but it’s more than just a matter of aesthetics or standing up straight to look confident. Good posture is a fundamental aspect of our overall health and longevity. From reducing back pain to boosting mental health, the benefits of maintaining proper alignment are numerous and profound. Here’s how good posture can transform your health and why it’s worth paying attention to:
Sep 23, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Do-Right-Now, High and Low Tech Ways to Avoid Alzheimer’s and Dementia
When the brain starts to fail, the consequences are devastating, life-changing, in the worst possible way. Small wonder the mere mention of words like cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer’s – whether it’s in relation to ourselves or our loved ones –strikes fear in our heart. What’s more, the rates of these debilitating neurological conditions are expected to skyrocket in the next 20 years as the population ages and life expectancies increase – we’re looking at you Gen X and younger Boomers. The good news there is a lot you can do to steer clear.
Sep 20, 2024 · SleepHow Following Ultradian, Circadian, and Infradian Rhythms Can Boost Your Health
Tune into natural rhythms to improve your energy, concentration, and sleep.
Sep 18, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - Health Benefits Of Flaxseeds
Flaxseeds might be tiny, but they’re packed with mighty benefits! Whether you’re tossing them on your morning cereal or sneaking them into a smoothie, they have the power to supercharge your health and help keep chronic diseases at bay. Curious why flax seeds are so beneficial? Let’s dive into the goodness they bring to the table!
Sep 16, 2024 · Healthy AgingWant to Live Long and Well? Your Oral Microbiome Can Help
One of the most intriguing, and most important, bacterial ecosystems we have is the oral microbiome which really isn’t a single microbiome at all but rather a collection of neighboring bacterial populations, approximately 700 strains in all, that have colonized our gums, tongue, the mucous lining of our cheeks and the surface of our teeth. This is some of the most densely populated bacterial real estate in the body with its primary function being to maintain our oral health – think cavity-free teeth and pink gums resistant to infection and recession.
Sep 13, 2024 · Gut HealthYour Guide to Gut Resilience: Why It’s Essential for Health and How To Harness It
Have you ever wondered why you seem to get sick more often than your friends or why it takes you longer to recover from a cold than others? The key lies in the concept of resilience, gut resilience in particular! Learn all about it here.
Sep 11, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - Benefits of Jumprope
Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast or just beginning your workout journey, incorporating jump rope into your routine can bring a wide range of physical and mental benefits. From burning calories to improving coordination, here’s why jumping rope is one of the best exercises you can add to your fitness regimen:
Sep 9, 2024 · Healthy AgingPerfect Pairing: Harnessing the Anti-Aging Power of Methylene Blue and Red Light Therapy
I am a big proponent of health-promoting therapies and two of the ones I’m now regularly using in my practice are red light therapy and methylene blue. The extraordinary benefits of combining the red and the blue, two modalities which, in different ways, both stimulate the powerplants inside our cells, the mitochondria, with the result that the body has more healing energy on tap. Each therapy enhances the other, creating a synergistic effect that I like to call, 1 plus 1 equals 3. Or, combine and conquer! Here are my thoughts on how to put them both to work for you.
Sep 6, 2024 · Health & WellnessHow to Conduct a “Fun Audit”
Missing out on fun? Here's how to identify what truly brings you joy and satisfaction.
Sep 4, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - The Benefits Of Walnuts
Walnuts are more than just a tasty snack—they're a nutritional powerhouse packed with health benefits. Whether you're looking to improve heart health, boost brain function, or simply add a nutritious food to your diet, walnuts are an excellent choice. Here’s a closer look at the many health benefits of walnut consumption:
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.
Aug 30, 2024 · Healthy AgingHere’s What You Need to Know About A1C
High blood glucose and prediabetes diagnoses are becoming increasingly common, even among people who are otherwise in good health. Discover the factors that contribute to a concerning A1C reading, along with diet and lifestyle strategies that can help you regulate your blood-glucose levels.
Aug 28, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - Improve Your Posture
Good posture plays a crucial role in your overall health, influencing everything from your breathing to your digestion, and even your mood. Whether you’re sitting at a desk all day or just going about your daily activities, maintaining proper posture can prevent pain and discomfort, boost your confidence, and improve your well-being. Here’s how you can improve your posture with simple, practical steps.
Aug 26, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Reasons Why You Need More Protein for Anti-Aging – and 6 Ways to Get Yours
Just about every day patients ask me how they can age well, or at minimum, do it better than their parents and grandparents did -- and the good news is that many of them can! As the biology of aging has evolved over the past few decades, we now know so much more about how to help our bodies age more slowly, in better health, than ever before. Granted, we’ve not quite figured out how to stop aging but there are a number of steps we can take, starting now, to get into a slower aging groove. One of the biggies is protein. While it may not seem like an obvious clock-stopper, as we age, increasing protein intake becomes especially important – and a lot of people overlook this relatively simple, longevity upgrade.
Aug 23, 2024 · MovementSleep, Sweat, Repeat: 4 Workouts You Could Do Over and Over
Experience Life's fitness editor weighs in on routines you could turn to time and time again.
Aug 21, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tips - How To Be More Mindful
Mindfulness boosts our connection with ourselves, others, and our surroundings. Here are some practical tips to help you become more mindful.
Aug 19, 2024 · Healthy AgingTwo Heart Tests You May Need — But Don’t Know About
Nothing is more essential than taking care of your heart. Heart attack risk increases significantly when underlying issues go unchecked and yet many people overlook the importance of understanding their cardiovascular system until it's too late. This is where diagnostic tests that capture images of your heart should enter the picture, revealing artery-blocking plaque before it becomes problematic. Having this kind of information now empowers you to take control of your heart health while there’s plenty of time to do something about it. In fact, most heart attacks should be preventable. Cardiac imaging tests remind us that we don’t have to let the coronary vessels deteriorate. With a little extra effort, we all can nip atherosclerosis in the bud – and that’s music to your heart’s ears!
Aug 16, 2024 · MovementHow Walking Enhances Healthy Aging
Regular walks can help stave off cardiovascular disease and dementia — and may even increase your lifespan.
Aug 14, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - Mindfulness, Meditation & Longevity
The secret to a longer, happier life might just be a few deep breaths away. That’s right—mindfulness and meditation, ancient practices with roots in diverse cultural and religious traditions, have taken the longevity scene by storm.
Aug 12, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Ways Alcohol Hurts Your Heart – and Ages You Fast
When it comes to alcohol consumption, as you might imagine, I’m really not a fan. As much as it may not seem to be a big deal – it is, after all, available everywhere – alcohol is a toxin, and it’s one that far too many people pour into their bodies multiple times a week. We use alcohol to unwind, relax, commune with others, feel more festive or enhance a nice meal. These are all understandable motivations but the trouble is, alcohol has enormous potential for dependency, more rapid aging, shortened longevity – and the exceedingly difficult-to-reverse specter of heart damage to boot.
Aug 9, 2024 · MovementWhat Is Rucking? Tips to Getting Started
Learn how adding a weighted pack (known as a rucksack) can elevate the strength and endurance effects of your daily walk.
Aug 7, 2024 · Health Coach TipsHealth Coach Tip - How Light Effects Our Health
The types of light we are exposed to—such as blue light from screens, natural sunlight, and the rhythms they help regulate—can have profound impacts on our longevity. Understanding how different forms of light affect us can help in making informed choices to promote a healthier, longer life.
Aug 5, 2024 · Healthy AgingThe Life-Changing Benefits of Balancing Blood Sugar — and 9 Ways To Do It
There are a million reasons not to eat sugar, to purge it from your life and not look back. No news there. What may be news to a lot of people though is all the far-reaching, systemic damage the stuff does to multiple aspects of your physiology when you’re not paying attention. In other words, that cookie isn’t just a cookie, it’s a weapon of health destruction. Turns out, the optimal functioning of so much of you – and down the road, your longevity – suffers when you bomb it with sweet stuff. With that in mind, it’s helpful to understand the profoundly positive impact that balancing your blood sugar levels has on your health – and how to stabilize those levels so you can stop trouble before it starts.
Aug 2, 2024 · Health & WellnessNavigating Summer Distractions: Tips for Staying on Track
Do you tend to feel unfocused and distracted in the summer? Or frustrated and somewhat “checked out” of work? If so, you are not alone and this is quite common. The carefree spirit of the season can clash with the demands of work. There's a disconnect between the excitement outside and the need to concentrate at the office.