Dr. Matthew Budoff presented data on December 9, 2023, demonstrating that a subgroup of individuals with very high total cholesterol and LDL do not seem to develop heart disease. The subjects are known as "Lean Mass Hyper Responders." The group became notable during the rise in popularity of ketogenic diets. This post will cover what a ketogenic diet is, what a lean mass hyper responder is, the possible mechanism of why they seem to be immune to heart disease, and the study itself.
Read MoreHealth experts and doctors have long touted the benefits of grains, with rice being a particularly healthy option. They also caution against consuming too much fat, particularly saturated fat. In recent years, low-carb-high-fat diets like keto have gained popularity because they reverse high blood sugar and blood pressure and improve BMI. This has led many to question the traditional belief in high-grain, low-fat diets. According to the PURE study, there is a connection between the amount of fat and carbohydrates consumed, cardiovascular risk, and mortality. The results will surprise you.
Read MoreMy father had been hospitalized several times recently and lost significant leg strength. Lately, he was put on hospice due to heart failure, and his legs ceased to be of any use after about two weeks. After living a great life, he sadly passed on March first, 2023, at 93, three days before his 94th birthday. He had a massive heart attack when he was about 52. His heart was so damaged they gave him poor odds of survival. They told him he would die young, even if he survived the next few weeks. They told him not to exert himself. He complied initially but then started lifting weights and walking. He regained his youthful vitality, which kept him alive for the next 42 years. One of his last lessons was about being confined to bed and its many downsides, even if it is sometimes unavoidable. This post is dedicated to him.
Read MoreI wrote about the increasing number of people dying in 2021 in August. The trend started around 2009. Interestingly, CDC death rates increased from 2020 to 2021, except for persons aged 75 and over. In other words, the increase in death was due to younger people dying, representing the ages least likely to die from Covid-19. As I had mentioned in the August 15 post, life insurance death claims for the five largest companies were up an average of 30% for people ages 18 to 64, corroborating the CDC findings. We were extremely worried about the rising death toll in 2020, but not in 2021, when more people died than in the pandemic year. I was distressed that nobody seemed interested in why this would be. I was on vacation then and said I would look into it to find out what was happening, and I have. I will discuss the CDC’s statistics from 2021 and a few other things I found out.
Read MoreA few years back, I wrote about the negative health consequences of visceral fat, which is the kind of fat that surrounds our organs. Too much of it is bad for our health. I spoke about several ways to measure it, but I want to concentrate on one very easy and free method called the waist-to-height ratio. It is a simple and free method you can do at home to determine your health risk. I will tell you why it is so important and tell you how to calculate yours. For the math-challenged, I have a link to an automatic calculator.
Read MoreToday, I would like to talk about a few other causes of poor sleep, especially in children and especially teens, as they normally have earlier school start times. According to numerous studies, people, including children and teens, who sleep less than five hours per night are more vulnerable to respiratory infections. But the bad news doesn't end there. Poor sleep can eventually lead to certain forms of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, depression and other mental disorders, and obesity. At the end of the post, I will cover some helpful tips to help us and our children to sleep better-especially our teenagers.
Read MorePhilosophers have long distinguished two basic forms of well-being: a hedonic form representing the sum of an individual's positive affective experiences and a deeper eudaimonic form that results from striving toward meaning and a noble purpose beyond simple self-gratification. It turns out, so do scientific researchers. There is robust scientific evidence that living a eudaimonic life extends life. This post will cover some of the science behind eudaimonia and how to achieve it.
Read MoreI want to share a shocking brief digital simulation showing how our faces have been drastically shrinking over several hundred years. I got it from Dr. Michael Gelb DDS in NYC, who got it from best-selling author James Nestor. Please concentrate on the lower face; you will see how the jaws are shrinking and moving back toward the throat. This causes the tongue to partially or fully occlude the airway, especially when we sleep. You should also notice how the face is less attractive now. In fact, it is rare to see someone who has realized their potential for full facial development. People with properly developed faces will always have straight teeth, room for their wisdom teeth, superior beauty, and better health. Whatever they do for a living, they appear to be actors and models. Since most of us have underdeveloped faces, this epidemic has gone primarily unnoticed by us, including most physicians and dentists. This needs to change because, as you will see in this post, it is one of the major contributing factors for many, if not most, of our modern health problems.
Read MoreMany traditional ways of measuring your risk for having a heart attack are not nearly as accurate as many believe. For example, many believe that our total cholesterol and LDL are the best indicators for heart disease, but the association is weak. As far back as 1964, Garrett, Horning, and Creech found no definite correlation between serum cholesterol levels and the nature and extent of atherosclerotic disease. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The famous Framingham heart study concluded in 1977 that HDL was a much better predictor of heart disease than LDL, and total cholesterol was not associated with any risk. In 1997, The Lancet published a paper on the elderly that showed for each 18 mg/dl increase of cholesterol, the chance of death went down by 15%. Amazingly, they also found that mortality from cancer and infection was significantly lower among the participants in the highest total cholesterol category. We believe these readings to be the best way to predict heart disease because we have been told to. Today I will show you some more statistical hocus pocus that helped promote these tests, and tell you about a much more accurate one you should get.
Read MoreThe most effective treatment for chronic conditions is diet and lifestyle intervention, which help restore normal hormonal and metabolic function. Even mildly abnormal glucose levels are an early warning sign for many chronic conditions, such as insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, mitochondrial health, blood vessel damage, heart disease, strokes, and brain health. Blood glucose measurements are one of the best ways to assess metabolic function and overall health. A fasting blood glucose test and the hemoglobin A1c level are two of the most common measurements doctors look at to evaluate your metabolism. Both of these measurements have limitations. Because they are one-time measurements, they fail to consider the bigger picture, miss fundamental problems, and are unreliable (specifically a1c). A better way to understand the dynamic nature of our blood glucose is a continuous glucose monitor, also called a CGM. In this post, I will l talk about the many benefits to using one.
Read MoreToday I am sharing a video about a child who was incorrectly diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD when his real problems were allergies and poor breathing that we call sleep disordered breathing. His mother describes a kind of domino effect that when recognized, is easily treatable. At my offices, we have teams of pediatric dentists, orthodontists, surgeons, orofacial myofunctional therapists, and lactation specialists to detect and treat these problems early. When needed, we refer to ENT, allergists, speech pathologists, and more. If more people were aware of the connection between childhood behavioral problems and sleep disordered breathing, millions of children would not suffer as they do. Please watch the video and share it; even if only one child is helped by your sharing, it will be worth it.
Read MoreInsulin promotes the uptake of glucose by cells and its storage as glycogen. The insulin and glucose tend to balance out in healthy individuals. In healthy individuals, our cells readily respond to insulin and quickly take up glucose. In many people the body produces insulin, but it is not enough to effectively keep up, and blood sugar rises. Most doctors focus on reading blood sugar levels to diagnose health problems. It turns out that high insulin levels precede high sugar levels, making it an excellent predictive test for disease.
Read MoreNow that the trees are all green where I live, I have found my hikes in the woods feel better. It turns out that there is robust science behind this phenomenon. The first people to recognize and study it were in Japan. It turns out, walking in the woods does far more than make you feel better; it measurably improves many aspects of your health. The Japanese researchers were so impressed with the findings that they coined a term called Shinrin-yoku to represent the joys of immersing ourselves in forests.
Read MoreMedical researchers have known for some time that we cannot always assume that our bodies always use vitamin D efficiently. About 25% of the population do not respond to standard doses of vitamin D3 supplementation. Many of them have healthy levels of vitamin D. A new condition has been identified called vitamin D resistance. Only a fraction are genetic in origin. Most cases are acquired during life. Some of the causes are known. This blog discusses the causes and the treatment options.
Read MoreThe combination of obesity, specific heart-health markers, and some metabolic measurements are collectively known as metabolic syndrome. Essentially our metabolism has a direct impact on our overall health and heart health specifically. The health implications are dire, not just for our cardiovascular systems. With Covid-19, obesity is strongly associated with increased severity of COVID-19 infections, even in the absence of other underlying health issues. In this post, I have included an interactive guide to all of the steps you need to include to improve your looks, mood, and energy level. Your "body composition" will take care of itself as you focus on the things listed in the guide. Best of all, your chances of dying from disease and infection will diminish.
Read MoreCombined with age and neck circumference, a Mallampati Score over 2 is about 94% predictive of sleep apnea. When I see a Mallampati score of 3 or 4, I know the airway is compromised and dig a little deeper into the patients’ backgrounds. If you have never heard of the Mallampati classification system, you are in the majority. It is actually something you can measure yourself. Read on if you are curious.
Read MoreAt our grocery stores and dinner tables, even the most thoughtful consumers are overwhelmed by the number of considerations to weigh when choosing what to eat—especially when it comes to meat. Guided by the noble principle of least harm, many responsible citizens resolve the ethical, environmental, and nutritional conundrum by quitting meat entirely. But can a healthy, sustainable, and conscientious food system exist without animals? Sacred Cow probes the fundamental moral, environmental, and nutritional quandaries we face in raising and eating animals, especially the most maligned of farmed animals, the cow.
Read MoreThe literature is replete with the adverse health effects of incorrect sun exposure, and I don't dispute them. These include sunburn and increased risk of skin cancer and eye diseases. However, summer is in full swing, and I love the additional sunlight it brings in the northern hemisphere. I crave sun exposure and feel much better when I can get it regularly. Some people have noticed that I am very tan (at least for me) and warned me that I might be jeopardizing my health. My skin type allows me to spend up to two hours in the sun, which is not enough for me to burn, even though I don't use sunscreen. I want to explain why the risks are exaggerated and why it is essential to get regular non-burning sun exposure.
Read MoreThe list of comorbidities on the CDC's Coronavirus pages is extensive. Still, distressingly, it does not include any references to oral infections. Adding periodontal disease would significantly increase the average number of comorbidities to 2.75. The reason for my distress is that their public health efforts will fall short. Here’s what you can do about it today.
Read MoreI was curious to see what population segments are most at risk of death from a Covid-19 infection. It turns out that age is a huge risk factor for coronavirus deaths. Also, underlying medical conditions are also a big factor in whether you live or die from the virus. Today’s post is all about who is most at risk, and how you can lower your risk and survive Covid-19.
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