January 30, 2023

Medical Tests For People Over 50

It’s a New Year, and many of my patients are coming in for their annual check-ups. Maybe you’re scheduled to visit your doctor for your annual physical as well. I always like to remind my patients of the old Ben Franklin adage – “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Nothing could be truer where your health is concerned. Prevention, however, comes in many forms, from making sure you get the optimal nutrition, rest, and exercise to being proactive and getting the right medical tests to screen for any possible issues. If you’re over the age of […]
January 30, 2023

Want to Detox? Try These Top 10 Cleansing Foods!

I love to cook and entertain, especially during the holidays, but this holiday season challenged us all to celebrate differently with Zoom parties, staying at home, and social distancing. For me, baking is a great way to de-stress, and because I believe in indulging friends and family with delicious food, drink and desserts, this year I made my mother’s recipe for fruitcake and my own recipe for biscotti and had them delivered. After a couple of months of holiday meals and baking up a storm, I am ready to start 2022 with a “clean” slate. That calls for some detoxing. […]
January 20, 2023

The Forgotten Longevity Benefits of Taurine

The Japanese have a life expectancy that is among the highest in the world. In fact, , Japan’s famous “Island of Longevity,” likely has the world’s highest percentage of people over 100 years old. Undoubtedly, there are many factors that play into the life spans of the longest-living populations, but evidence shows that they all have one thing in common: high dietary intake of an amino acid called taurine. The connection between taurine and a long life is so strong that researchers have dubbed taurine, “The nutritional factor for the longevity of the Japanese.” Taurine promotes cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity, electrolyte balance, […]
January 3, 2023

Greek Island Ikaria Is a Longevity Hot Spot

This is the fourth part in our 5-part on life in the “Blue Zones,” where people live longer, healthy lives. Each part will look into the diets and lifestyles of the areas where longevity is a normal part of aging better. Who doesn’t want to know their secrets? Ikaria is a beautiful Greek island in the Aegean Sea and is home to residents living eight-to-10 years longer than the average American (and with significantly less health complications). It is one of five “Blue Zones” in the world — a geographical region that is a longevity hot spot. A study done in 2013 […]
December 4, 2022

Sardinia: Another Blue Zone for Longevity

This is the third part in our 5-part on life in the “Blue Zones,” where people live longer, healthy lives. Each part will look into the diets and lifestyles of the areas where longevity is a normal part of aging better. Who doesn’t want to know their secrets? Sardinia is one of five “Blue Zones” — a concept first introduced in the early 2000s and defined as an area in which the population has exceptionally low rates of chronic disease and individuals known to outlive those in other parts of the world. Sardinia is the second largest Italian island and sits in […]
October 22, 2022

The Compassionate Connection

Why is it so hard for us to connect on a deep level with others, particularly those who are suffering? We constantly find ourselves interrupted and inundated with tasks and stresses. We are disconnected, sleepwalking through our lives, unable to help even ourselves. There is a better way. In The Compassionate Connection: The Healing Power of Empathy and Mindful Listening, Dr. David Rakel explains how we can strengthen our bonds with others—all the while doing emotional and physical good for ourselves. As founder and director of the University of Wisconsin Integrative Medicine program, Dr. Rakel discovered that we become the […]
October 11, 2022

Emotional Distress Can Cause Premature Aging

Several studies have shown that the chronic stress or a stress experienced over a prolonged period of time can contribute to long-term problems for heart and blood vessels. The consistent and ongoing increase in heart rate, and the elevated levels of stress hormones and blood pressure can make body lethargic and exhausted. This effect of stress on our health has been reiterated in many studies and we are quite familiar with it. The new studies on stress shows social isolation, untreated depression, prolong anxiety attacks and long-term unemployment can speed-up the ageing process by shortening the length of each DNA […]
September 25, 2022

What is Osteoporosis And Why You Should Care?

Osteoporosis is a quiet condition that occurs slowly over time as we all get older. It is usually not discovered until we start breaking bones from simple falls or less. All of us are born with thin bones, and as we grow, our bones grow and thicken. So, when Mom said “eat your veggies and drink your milk to grow up big and strong,” she was telling the truth. Microscopically, bones are built like steel-girder bridges or scaffolds, lots of bone girders holding up our bodies. Our bones should be their strongest by about age 30. After that, our bones […]
July 30, 2022

Pursue Your Passions & Grow Bolder Not Older

Remember when you were a kid and your parents, or some older relative, teacher, neighbor, etc, told you to “act your age” when you were just enjoying yourself? What it really meant, though, was to act more mature, or older, than you were and forego the fun as well.  As a result, many of us learned at an early age to put enjoyment by the wayside in an effort to behave the way everyone told us we should for our age. Now that you’re older, acting your “age”, for some, may mean sitting around watching television but to others it […]