I’d like to tell you about another, new (to health research that is) superfood antioxidant that we haven’t talked about before. When I say the name of this berry to my patients they almost always wrinkle up their eyebrows and say “ a what-berry?” to which I repeat, a “chokeberry”. Even though it has a funny name, I’d like to tell you about the new fantastic health benefits researchers are now assigning to this ancient fruit.
It usually starts in the small joints of your hands. They become hot and inflamed. They feel stiff and difficult to move. As the condition progresses, other joints will be affected. Your cartilage will be damaged. You may also experience fatigue, general muscle soreness, weakness, and depression.
Rheumatoid arthritis can be a truly debilitating condition, so I am always on the look out for promising non-invasive ways to treat the condition. Just recently, green tea came to the fore as a possible way to relieve RA symptoms.
If you’re like most Americans, you slather on sunscreen before going outside, you wear sunglasses and a broad-brimmed hat, and you stay indoors during the peak hours of the day. It turns out, you may have gone a little overboard. Sunlight is your body’s main source of vitamin D. When sunlight hits your skin it catalyzes the production of vitamin D, and vitamin D is very, very important to your health.
I do think there’s a time and place when energy drinks can be useful, especially during high exercise moments when you can become extremely dehydrated. But on the flipside these drinks pack in quite a lot of calories with their loaded high fructose corn syrup. Because of that, these drinks are definitely not something I’d put into the “everyday consumption” category. I also think there are better alternatives for a natural energy boost.
To be sure, there is conflicting medical advice available about alcohol drinking. However, the key word to remember is moderation. Heavy drinking always leads to health problems. It can adversely affect your heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and bladder. It can lead to diabetes, depression, breast cancer, not to mention numerous social problems. What do I mean by heavy drinking? More than 2 drinks a day, 7 days a week. Yet, recent research shows that moderate alcohol, 1 drink a day, or less, can actually protect your health. Let me explain why.
Unfortunately, the typical American diet is sadly devoid of fiber. And if you’re one of the millions of people who suffer from gas, constipation, and bloating the lack of fiber could be placing your health in risk. Not eating enough fiber could be the catalyst to many serious diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
I’ve been using a lot of different spices. I learned that many of them not only enhance the taste of my food but are also very healthy for you. Today I want to recommend a few tasty spices that can help protect you from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis… even Alzheimer’s.
Several of my male patients who are troubled with low testosterone levels have also been found to have type 2 diabetes. In fact, the two conditions share many of the same symptoms (see more below) like erectile dysfunction and fatigue, which are usually symptoms that bring male patients in to see me. Balancing the two hormones of insulin and testosterone are not only important to a man’s sexual function but also to his overall good health – in fact, his life may even depend on it.
If there is one thing I enjoy as a doctor, it is being able to give patients advice that is easy and pleasant to follow. All-too-often, health advice sounds restrictive. That gets tiring for a patient.One more bit of welcome advice for most people is to cook more with garlic. Some people don’t like the way garlic smells, but most everyone agrees that it makes food taste better. Garlic provides a huge list of health benefits. And as long as you share your garlic-cooked meals with your loved ones, the smell shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
Many of my patients come in and tell me that they don’t know why their weight keeps going up, or at least they’re not losing any when they feel they should have. They tell me they’re exercising, eating “healthy foods” and still their weight loss efforts are stuck on zero! However, when I ask them … Read more
We all love to eat, but unfortunately everything we love to eat has some traces of sugar in it. Sugar is not always a bad thing. All our cells and organs depend on it, including our muscles and brain, and it serves as an important source of energy. Although we can’t exist without it, there is a darker side to sugar. When consumed in certain forms or in excess, sugar has damaging effects on our health. In particular, high insulin levels, a risk factor for diabetes, are closely related to sugar. Let’s take a closer look at what this food does to the body.
One of the worst things I have to do as a doctor is break bad news to a patient. Whether I have to tell someone they have heart disease, diabetes, or a problem with their prostate, it’s always difficult. Fortunately, most of my patients follow my advice about getting routine screenings. This means that my … Read more