We create more than a hundred new videos every year. They are the culmination of hundreds of hours of researching, writing, animating, editing, and producing. We comb through thousands of scientific papers from the peer-reviewed medical literature so that busy people like you don’t have to.
In 2022, I covered topics from athletics and atrial fibrillation to vitamin supplements and wrinkles. Which videos floated to the top of the charts this year? Check out the top ten.
#10 The Purported Benefits of Vitamin K2: Should You Take Supplements?
This video just came out and has already become one of the most popular of the year. To summarize, there is no good evidence that vitamin K has bone, brain, or heart benefits beyond its blood-clotting function. And, even if such evidence arose, we can get all of the vitamin K we need from eating greens, since there’s no requirement specifically for vitamin K2. Further, if some evidence did arise that there was some unique benefit from K2, our microbiome makes K2 from the K1 we get from greens. And, even if we had a problem with our microbiome, we can make K1 from K2, just like other animals do. So, the bottom line: Eat your greens.
#9 How to Treat H. Pylori Naturally with Diet
This video asks and answers the question: What food can eradicate H. pylori in the majority of patients? For some background on the Achilles’ heel in certain Asian diets, check out The Role of Kimchi and H. Pylori in Stomach Cancer.
#8 Food for Hair Growth
This video captured the eighth spot in our top ten, but I also covered Supplements for Hair Growth and Pills for Hair Growth in case you want to take an even deeper dive. Note I added a correction to the pepper information in the table around minute 2:40. As our new in-house video fact-checker just pointed out, the mg/g values for capsaicin weren’t for regular fresh peppers, but fresh peppers that were then dried! So, it’s a little more daunting. Instead of “a quarter of a fresh jalapeño,” it’s more like “a third of a habanero or a teaspoon of medium-hot red pepper spice.”
#7 Do Vitamin C Supplements Help with Anxiety?
A few months ago, the acclaimed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published a recommendation to begin screening kids for anxiety starting at age eight. I’m planning to create an entire series of videos next year on dealing with anxiety, but until then, check out this video discussing the risks and benefits of using vitamin C for depression and anxiety.
#6 Glycemic Index of Potatoes: Why You Should Chill and Reheat Them
If you eat potatoes when they’re cold, as in potato salad, or chilled and reheated, you can get a nearly 40 percent lower glycemic impact. Chilling isn’t the only trick to blunting glycemic impact. You can also add vinegar, lemon, or broccoli. See How to Reduce the Glycemic Impact of Potatoes for more information, and, if you’re in a particularly spuddy mood, check out these others from last year: Do Potatoes Increase the Risk of Diabetes?, Do Potatoes Increase the Risk of High Blood Pressure and Death?, and The Healthiest Type of Potato.
#5 How to Heal a Leaky Gut with Diet
In this video, which took fifth place in our top ten, I address the foods and food components that can boost the integrity of our intestinal barrier. If you missed the backgrounder video, check out Avoid These Foods to Prevent a Leaky Gut, in which I talk about the over-the-counter drugs and diets that make things worse.
#4 Which Foods Are Anti-Inflammatory?
A whole food, plant-based diet is basically synonymous with an anti-inflammatory diet, whereas inflammatory markers can double within six hours of eating a pro-inflammatory meal, which I cover in the companion video Foods That Cause Inflammation. This may help explain the remarkable findings in another popular video this year: Plant-Based Eating Score Put to the Test. So, Why Don’t People Eat Healthier? That’s another one of my favorites released in 2022!
#3 The Best Diet for Treating Atrial Fibrillation
This important video is a long time coming, addressing which foods we should eat and avoid to reduce our risk of Afib. It’s chock full of information and ends with a compelling and emotional case report of the power of evidence-based nutrition to reverse disease.
#2 Fighting the Ten Hallmarks of Cancer with Food
As you may know, I’ve been researching and writing a new book on longevity. After it’s been put to bed, edited, fact-checked, copyedited, and published, and I’ve completed my book tour, my next book will be on cancer survival; so, there will be a lot more forthcoming on this critically important topic. Until then, I have dozens of videos on cancer prevention and treatment, including a mind-blowing series on chemotherapy released this year that asked and answered the questions: How Effective Is Chemotherapy? and How Much Does Chemotherapy Improve Survival?.
#1 The Best Diet for Healthy Aging
2023 is the year my new book How Not to Age will be released. It’s heartening that there is so much interest, as evidenced by this video reaching number one, as well as the popularity of two other 2022 hits—How to Boost FGF21 with Diet for Longevity and How to Increase Your Life Expectancy 12 to 14 Years. And these just scratch the surface.
I can’t wait to share everything else I’ve uncovered!