Chronic Inflammation: The Silent Driver of Disease
Our national health agencies — along with the mainstream media — seem fixated on reporting alarming statistics about the flu, COVID, RSV, and whatever else qualifies as the fear headline of the week. And yet, there’s a glaring gap in how we’re educated about true health. I’m talking about chronic disease. Currently, 60% of American adults live with at least one chronic disease, and nearly 40% have two or more. Even more alarming? Chronic...
Rethinking Obesity: What’s Really Driving Our Expanding Waistlines?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’m starting today’s article with a picture—well, technically a graph. Take a look at this chart (based on CDC data) showing US obesity rates over the last 70 years. Notice anything? When the powers that be rolled out the first-ever Dietary Guidelines for Americans—coincidentally the same year I graduated high school—our collective waistlines began to balloon. Methinks the “experts” may have steered us wrong....
The Cholesterol Myth That Refuses to Die
Back when I was completing my nutrition degree, one of my reading requirements was Deep Nutrition by Dr. Cate Shanahan. In her book, Dr. Shanahan shares how she was taught in medical school that cholesterol causes heart disease, that low-fat/low-cholesterol diets were “heart-healthy,” and that statins were the gold standard for lowering cholesterol. But something didn’t add up for her. If saturated fats and cholesterol were truly the villains, why were so many of the...
5 Simple Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp as You Age
Still Sharp at 94 — and How You Can Be Too When my mother was in a nursing home prior to her passing in 2015 at age 94, every visit began the same way.I’d pop my head into her room and say, “Hi Mom! How are you?” She’d smile and reply, “Well, Sher, I hurt from head to toe—but I still know who you are!” Age-related cognitive decline is a very real and scary thing....