Usually I’m a voracious reader. I’ve always enjoyed reading and gobbling up books. But this year it seemed I couldn’t get past more than a couple of pages of anything at any time. “The Well-Lived Life” –a new book by Dr. Gladys McGarey–had been sitting on my desk collecting dust for months. Finally, I picked […]
A metanalysis of 12 clinical studies representing a total of 776 patients diagnosed with dementia shows that phototherapy interventions can significantly improve cognitive function as indicated by changes in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. Phototherapy did not, however, have measurable impact on depression, agitation, or sleep patterns. Researchers at the Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese […]
If you want to help your patients extend their life expectancies, tell them to take a hike! People who walk at least 8,000 steps per day for two or more days each week have significantly lower all-cause cardiovascular mortality rates 10 years later. That’s the conclusion of an in-depth analysis of accelerometer data from 3,101 […]
A healthy immune system naturally regulates between defense and repair. But when confronted by unrelenting challenges, it becomes overburdened and the repair functions take a back seat to defense. The result is a “repair deficit” characterized by chronic inflammation—a well-recognized cause and amplifier of chronic disease. When defense takes precedence over repair, intestinal permeability usually […]
Maca (Lepidium) is a genus of cruciferous root vegetables representing 249 known species of plants native to the Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia. Various types of maca have been used as both food and medicine by indigenous peoples of that region for thousands of years. Maca belongs to the same Brassicaceae family as turnips, […]
According to the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, there are roughly 27 million American women in the peri- to post-menopausal years–that’s 20% of the US work force. And each year, roughly 2 million American women reach menopause. Women betwen the ages of 50-60 years have a 3.5-fold higher risk of osteoarthritis than men of […]
A massive new study of data from over 19,000 individuals shows that chronic pain is associated with loss of hippocampal volume and increased risk of dementia. Compared with pain-free control subjects, those who had five or more areas of chronic pain showed neurological changes equivalent to eight years of excess brain aging (Zhao W, et […]
Vitamin B12 deficiency is more common than many people realize. Large epidemiological surveys suggest that roughly 6% of all US adults under age 60 years are deficient, with the number rising to about 20% in people over age 60. Some estimates put the prevalence as high as 25%. Those are certainly big numbers, but recent […]
In recent years conventional biomedicine has begun to recognize that disruptions in the composition of the microbiome and the integrity of the gut lining are key factors in the pathogenesis of certain chronic disorders. For example, we know that in celiac disease, exposure to gluten induces an immune response which in turn triggers inflammation. This […]
It’s a common clinical scenario: A middle-aged patient comes in, saying something like, “I used to be so thin and now I’m not. I exercise as much as I did when I was younger, and I eat the same. But I keep gaining weight. I just can’t keep it off. It must be my metabolism.” […]
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