By Austin Perlmutter, MD
We’re always taught to set a good example for our children, but what if your decision to exercise influenced the health of your future offspring? A recently published study in the journal Diabetes looked at this very question. Continue reading
By: The Dr. Perlmutter Team
Alcohol is one of the most controversial topics health and wellness practitioners must navigate. Frequently, readers of this blog ask if alcohol consumption can be a part of a healthy lifestyle — my answer is, it depends.
Many studies have shown that alcohol consumption may have benefits far beyond easing social interaction and improving dance floor performance. A meta-analysis of the literature conducted in 2015 by the Journal of Internal Medicine found that moderate alcohol consumption is associated with reduced risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and heart failure. However, that same study also found that heavy drinking, defined as consuming three or more standard-sized drinks per day, is associated with increased risk of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, abnormalities in heart rhythm, and brain bleeding type stroke. How can alcohol consumption be associated with both an increased and decreased risk of coronary artery disease and stroke? Continue reading
There is an extensive body of research that reveals how critical glucose uptake and utilization are for many types of cancer. What the research has been unable to determine is exactly how cancer cells might manipulate their environment so as to increase the availability of glucose.
We commonly think that if something is good for our health, that more of it is even better, right? More kale never hurt anyone. Putting on extra sunscreen may not protect us from even more UV rays, but it certainly won’t cause excess damage!
But is that actually always true? How about with insulin, which we’re commonly told to keep as low as possible? Continue reading
We’ve talked a lot about the benefits of being in ketosis lately, but do you know how do you determine if you are in this state?
Science has given us a number of methods for doing so, including breath tests, urine tests, and blood tests. To be certain, each has their own advantages and disadvantages, but I tend to fall on the side of advocating for blood-based testing, which measures your level of the chemical beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB). Continue reading
As we have explored previously, elevated blood sugar is clearly toxic for the brain. Higher blood sugar is clearly a risk for Alzheimer’s disease, along with coronary artery disease, diabetes, and even cancer.
But focusing on the brain, I think it’s important to emphasize that elevated blood sugar has wide-ranging negative effects on brain cells and their functionality. Elevated blood sugar is associated with inflammation, and this is a cornerstone mechanism across a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In addition, persistent elevation of blood sugar ultimately compromises the function of the hormone insulin. We now recognize that insulin is important for the health and integrity of the brain not only because of its role in allowing glucose to be used as fuel, but also how it functions as a nurturing hormone. Continue reading
When Grain Brain first hit shelves, one of the first questions I started to hear repeated to me again and again was “This is great and all, but what can I do if I’m a vegetarian?” The answer is simple: you can be a vegetarian and follow the Grain Brain lifestyle, no problem (and if you want to learn more about this, visit our vegan/vegetarian focus page).
Now as similar lifestyles begin to take the spotlight, the ketogenic lifestyle chief among them, the same question, posed about these diets, are coming to the fore. Thankfully, Dr. Will Cole is here to help. Continue reading
Perhaps you’ve noticed, more and more, that the number of plants people are keeping in their home is multiplying. Certainly there’s an aesthetic reason for this, but what if it was impacting our health as well? A recent study in HortScience looked at the impact of plants in hospital recovery rooms to see if the presence of plants impacted the health of these patients, measuring factors like levels of pain and duration of hospitalization.
Let’s investigate what they found.
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