Digestion is one of my favorite topics. Many of my clients suffer from a variety of digestive issues: from gas, bloating, and occasional heart burn; to constipation, diarrhea, and acid reflux; and then on to IBS, Crohn’s, colitis, Celiac, and diverticulitis. In my late teens, through college, and into my mid-thirties I too suffered with digestive issues. I was diagnosed with IBS and the “solution” was to eat more fiber. That didn’t really work. As I began to learn more about healthy eating it turned out to be a relatively simple fix – stop eating bagels and cereals for breakfast – and soon my digestion was vastly improved and my seasonal asthma was gone! To say we are only as...
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Filtered by topic: Nutrition & Nutrition Support
The Straight Scoop on Vitamin K2
The body requires an “alphabet soup” of vitamins, some of which get more attention than others. We all know vitamins A, C, and D, and lately vitamin B12 has become a household term. One vitamin that hasn’t received the attention it deserves is vitamin K2, also known as menaquinone (men-uh-QUINE-own). Vitamin K1 is well known for its role in blood clotting, but the mainstream application of this knowledge is incomplete. Daily Recommended Values for vitamin K are based only on the known effects of vitamin K1, phylloquinone. Research suggests that vitamin K2 is even more important than K1 in the prevention of heart disease (Beulens et al., 2013).* Vitamins K1 and K2 are both...
Supporting Your Immune System or How to Give Your Body Its Best Shot Against Unwanted Viruses (Such as the flu, E68, HPV, or even dare I say Ebola)
I’ll admit right off the top I’m certainly no expert on Ebola, but it seems quite apparent neither are the “experts” be they in the Federal Government (the CDC) or your major medical institutions.And I’m no expert on the latest “new and mysterious” Enterovirus 68 (or E68) virus or the flu or any of the other viruses that wreck havoc on us – Herpes, Epstein-Barr, HPV, etc. But what I do know is that with all these viruses about us the best way to protect ourselves is with a strong immune system. Without that we are prone to these unwanted invaders. To best understand our internal immunity we look at the relationship between four important nutrients – Vitamin C, Vitamin...
B4: The Vitamin For Heart Health You May Never Heard Of
Vitamin B4 - ever heard of it? If I were a betting person I’d say probably not.Well perhaps there is a reason. Maybe someone doesn’t want you to know what it is you are missing. Here’s a little historical background. The discovery of vitamins began in the early 20th Century. One of the leading scientists was Casimir Funk who discovered what he called “vitamines” – short for “vital amines” or chemicals that were vital for life. The vitamins were named sequentially and initially associated with a specific deficiency condition. Vitamin A was for night blindness, B for beriberi, C for scurvy, and D for rickets. Initially, each vitamin was thought to be its own unique...
Healthy Kids: Back to School Ideas
In the spirit of “back to school” here are a few ideas on nutrition for kids. (Of course this information is good for adults too!) Nutrition for kids is the most challenging aspects I face when working with clients. While it is hard enough to get adults to eat healthier, kids are often a greater challenge. The food producers and manufacturers have developed special foods that they call “kid’s food”. If you take the time to read the list of ingredients you will find that most of it is not food and should not be consumed by anyone, particularly our children. Our children are growing and need the healthiest foods available to properly fuel their minds and bodies...
Organic Food is Simply Better: A New Study
Doggy Bag Message First Organic food is seemingly more nutritious; contain more protective antioxidants, contain 4 times less pesticides and lower amounts of unhealthy metals like cadmium. While not everything that’s labeled organic is healthy or local, buying organic produce, especially the dirty dozen is worth the extra buck. Like I tell my patients; don’t be skimpy with your food. Study Details A meta-analyses based on 343 peer-reviewed publications were carried out • A meaningful differences in antioxidant content between organic and non-organic crops/crop-based foods. • Types of antioxidants to be higher in organic foods were; phenolic acids, flavanones, stilbenes,...
Pesticide-free Eating Made Easy
Let's talk food. Although whole foods are a better nutritional choice than processed, within the category of whole foods you have a chance to do far better for yourself. Today we'll examine if and when organic is worth the premium in price, and give you a cheat sheet to make it easy to make better decisions. What is the problem with "conventional" produce? "Conventional" produce is exposed to pesticides (e.g., herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides) that cannot always be completely washed away. By contrast, "organic" produce is not exposed to pesticides. In other words, Conventional = Organic +...
Dietary Supplement Industry: Heal Thyself!
Big Pharma has plenty of "bad players" and greed-driven excesses, but our Dietary Supplement industry does need to clean up its act or risk the false panacea of more FTC & FDA regulation. Here is pointed & funny take on the matter from John Oliver, who comes from the UK, which is far more regulated in this area: At XY Wellness, we applaud any effort to weed out players in the health care industry who are exploiting the ill and vulnerable. In fact, please see my manifesto (yes, it is a bit of a rant) on this very topic. All the Best, David
Dysfunction in the Medical Industry
Our medical industry is suffering from systemic dysfunction. The drivers behind much of this dysfunction are two-fold: conflict of interest and lack of transparency. The net result is eroded trust and reduced effectiveness. As a society, we can and must do better. Doing so will require us to collectively demand more from the various participants in the system. Today I would like to share with you our perspective here at XY Wellness on what the core issues are, and on what reforms we would like to see take place. To begin, we believe that the potential side effects of a recommended course of treatment should never be more serious than the health condition now being treated. We believe...
The Strong Link Between Nutrition and Erectile Dysfunction (ED)
Have you ever wondered why there seem to be so many advertisements for erectile dysfunction (ED) medication - Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra - on television and in the magazines you are reading?I did, and began an investigation that would ultimately become my Doctoral dissertation.The reason is quite simple – there is a lot of erectile dysfunction (ED).Over 30 million men in the United States suffer from it.ED affects over 50% of men between the ages of 40 and 70 and the incidence of complete ED triples between those ages.Even more disconcerting, experts expect cases of ED to more than double over the next 25 years. Erectile dysfunction imposes significant social costs.It impacts a man’s...