Ever wonder where the expression “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” comes from? Well, there may be some good scientific evidence that this is valid. The results of an animal study published by The American Physiological Society found that Quercetin, a powerful antioxidant present in apples and other fruits and vegetables, may have […]
The Last Frontier In the “Last Frontier” of Medicine, as my Trekkie friends would say, scientists and physicians are exploring how the Microbiome and probiotics play a much larger and more vital role in our health. This role is larger than we could ever have imagined. What is the Human Microbiome? The human gastrointestinal tract […]
I read an article a couple of days ago that was written by a medical colleague of mine. It reminded me of my life story and what I have done to change it. A follower of his blog wrote:”… my father has heart disease, his father did too, and I’m obviously concerned about my own […]
Leptin and Insulin While the Energizer Bunny runs on batteries, our bodies run on hormones. Hormones tell our bodies to burn fat and lose weight or to store fat and gain weight or to keep our weights the same. There are two key hormones that regulate food intake and energy balance in our bodies. […]
What is inflammation? More and more today, research and scientific papers are written talking about inflammation. How often have we seen something criticized as “inflammatory”? From Omega-6 fats to stress to sugar to diet, everything bad seems to cause inflammation. But what exactly is inflammation and why is it such a problem? If it’s so […]
Lethal Impact of Obesity (Surplus Body Fat) As I mentioned in an earlier blog, fat cells in obese people behave differently than fat cells in lean individuals. This year it’s expected that 400,000 Americans will die from the effects of excess body fat1. That’s almost the same number of those who have tobacco-related deaths. Excess […]
Chronic stress, combined with positive energy balance (accumulation of body fat because energy is stored as fat), may cause an increased risk of obesity and other metabolic diseases like diabetes. The prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically in the US in the last several decades. The American Medical Association and the US Federal Drug Administration […]
In medical school, future doctors are taught that obesity is simply an imbalance of calories consumed and calories burned. In other words, if we don’t burn the same or more calories than we consume, the better becomes our chances of gaining weight. If this imbalance continues for a long time, we may become obese. This […]
Recently, both the American Medical Association (AMA) and the US Federal Drug Administration have declared obesity a “disease.” Doctors and researchers have known for some time that obesity has a morbidity (causes other diseases) and a mortality (causes death). So how prevalent is obesity and how dangerous is it? The following facts adapted from the […]
We have all heard the expression: “We are what we eat.” In my physiology and nutrition classes I teach at the university, I have, over the years, changed this to “We are what we don’t eat.” This is because the standard American diet is so poor due to our lifestyles, we do not get the […]