More than two-thirds of Americans over age 60 have diverticulosis, but it was nearly unknown a century ago, and remained extremely rare among populations eating whole food plant-based diets.
One week on a plant-based diet can significantly drop blood levels of homocysteine, a toxin associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Without vitamin B12 supplementation, though, a long-term plant-based diet could make things worse.
Squatting and leaning can help straighten the anorectal angle, but a healthy enough diet should make bowel movements effortless regardless of positioning.
Lifestyle changes are often more effective in reducing the rates of heart disease, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and premature death than almost any other medical intervention.
Bariatric weight-loss surgery (like Roux-en-Y gastric bypass) is increasingly performed in children as young as five years old.
The first-line treatment for hypertension is lifestyle modification, which often includes the DASH diet. What is it and how can it be improved?
Even though modern African diets may now be as miserably low in fiber as American diets, Africans still appear to have 50 times less colorectal cancer than Americans (our second leading cancer killer).
Gnathostomiasis from raw fish is a growing problem, manifested by tiny worms that burrow under our skin and, in rare cases, can get into our eyes and brain.
Heme iron, the type found predominantly in blood and muscle, is absorbed better than the non-heme iron that predominates in plants, but may increase the risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome.
Immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, are often denied fresh fruits and vegetables to ostensibly protect them against foodborne illness.
Less than 3% of Americans meet the daily recommended fiber intake, despite research suggesting high-fiber foods such as whole grains can affect the progression of coronary heart disease.
Which foods should we eat and avoid to prevent and treat acid reflux before it can place us at risk for Barrett’s esophagus and cancer?
What is the contemporary relevance of Dr. Kempner’s rice and fruit protocol for the reversal of chronic disease?
High blood pressure, the #1 killer risk factor in the world, may be eliminated with a healthy enough diet.
Neither antioxidant or folic acid supplements seem to help with mood, but the consumption of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables and folate-rich beans and greens may lower the risk for depression.
Crystallization of cholesterol may be what causes atherosclerotic plaque rupture, the trigger for heart attacks
Death row nutrition offers some insight into the standard American diet.
The neurotoxin BMAA is found in seafood and the brains of Alzheimer’s and ALS victims. Might dietary changes help prevent amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?
Is whole grain consumption just a marker for healthier behaviors, or do whole grains have direct health benefits?
The galactose in milk may explain why milk consumption is associated with significantly higher risk of hip fractures, cancer, and premature death.
Does just reducing one’s intake of meat, dairy, and eggs significantly reduce mortality?
Of all the components of a healthy Mediterranean diet, which are associated with a longer lifespan?
A randomized controlled trial found that a Mediterranean-type diet can dramatically lower the risk of subsequent heart attacks. How does it compare with plant-based diet data?
A randomized controlled trial found that a Mediterranean-type diet can dramatically lower the risk of subsequent heart attacks. How does it compare with plant-based diet data?
What was it about the diet on the Greek isle of Crete in the 1950s that made it so healthy?
The reason those eating plant-based diets have less fat buildup in their muscle cells and less insulin resistance may be because saturated fats appear to impair blood sugar control the most.
More people might be open to changing their diet and lifestyle if they knew how little modern medicine has to offer for combating chronic diseases.
Extraordinary results reported in a rare example of a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of a dietary intervention (flaxseeds) to combat one of our leading killers, high blood pressure.
If foods like berries and dark green leafy vegetables have been found protective against cognitive decline, why aren’t they recognized as such in many guidelines?
Those who sit most of the day and are unable to use a standing or treadmill desk, or take frequent breaks from sitting, should consider the regular ingestion of the spice turmeric to protect endothelial function.
Since many tumors take decades to grow it’s remarkable that cancer risk can so dramatically be reduced– even late in life.
The American Heart Association came up with seven simple lifestyle goals to combat the leading killer of men and women: heart disease.
American Institute for Cancer Research recommendation compliance associated not only with cancer prevention and survival but less heart and respiratory disease mortality and a longer lifespan.
Dr. Walter Kempner was a pioneer in the use of diet to treat life-threatening chronic disease, utilizing a diet of mostly rice and fruit to cure malignant hypertension and reverse heart and kidney failure.
The yellow fluid around tomato seeds appears to suppress platelet activation without affecting blood clotting. This anti-inflammatory effect may explain why eating tomato products is associated with lower cardiac mortality.
Lifestyle changes could potentially prevent hundreds of thousands of cases of Alzheimer’s disease every year in the United States
What is the best strategy to lower the level of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1?
The ongoing global drop in male fertility may be associated with saturated fat intake and lack of sufficient fruits and vegetables.
Carcinogens in grilled and baked chicken may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, while curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric, may sometimes help even in advanced stages of the disease.
Flax seed consumption may play a role in preventing and treating breast cancer by blocking the inflammatory effects of interleukin-1.
