by Bianca Garilli, ND I have a patient who doesn’t like vegetables. In fact, this person is also not a fan of water (sans flavoring), exercise, nor high fiber foods such as legumes. This scenario is, in many ways, a perfect setup for a number of lifestyle-related chronic diseases, including hypertension. This patient has been on a cocktail of medications for many years but expressed to me that they’d like reduce the list. So, it was with great excitement that…

by Whitney Crouch, RDN, CLT The overweight and obesity epidemic in America Worldwide, obesity rates have tripled since 1975. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults 18 years and older were overweight. Of these, over 650 million were obese.1 The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a cross-sectional survey that represents the civilian, noninstitutionalized population.2 NHANES studies are crucial for looking at many aspects of community health in the US, like the worsening epidemic of overweight and obesity.…

by Christopher Keroack, MD, IFMCP Excess adiposity remains one of the leading healthcare concerns in America. Two-thirds of our nation is overweight and one-third is obese.1 As a healthcare force, we recognize that lifestyle factors like nutrition and physical activity are major contributors to this epidemic. Because of this, novel approaches to nutrition have come about in the last decade to address this epidemic…some helpful, others not so much. Along with Hippocrates, the father of healthcare who said, “There are…

by Bianca Garilli, ND For women, the pre- and post-menopausal years represent a time of major change in many aspects of life including spiritual, emotional, and physical. From a physical perspective, shifting levels of sex hormones such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), testosterone, and estrogen play critical roles in the transition in and through menopause. It’s during this chapter of a woman’s life that the number of ovarian follicles begin to decline. Their eventual depletion cause the ovaries to no longer respond…

by Lewis Chang, PhD Ketosis is the metabolic state in which ketone bodies—alternative energy substrates to glucose—are produced from fat and utilized as the main energy source for the body. An important study found that nutritional ketosis induced by consumption of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil helped increase the redox NAD+/NADH ratio in the brain of healthy young adults.1 Disturbed glucose metabolism and the resulting inadequate energy supply to the brain contributes to the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s…

Host: Deanna Minich, PhD, CNS, FACN, IFMCP Guest: Christopher Keroack, MD, IFMCP You may have heard about the ketogenic diet. This high-fat, low-carbohydrate, moderate-protein dietary pattern has experienced a revival of sorts in the mainstream media and dieting world. But, before “keto” was a contemporary fad, how was it used? In fact, there is ~100 years of science supporting the ketogenic diet. To shed light on its history of use and elucidate practical areas of clinical application, Drs. Deanna Minich and Christopher…

by Annalouise O’Connor, PhD, RD Dyslipidemia is defined as an abnormal level of lipids in the blood and is often described most simplistically as greater levels of total or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol or particle number, or lower levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the “good” cholesterol. Dyslipidemia is linked with cardiovascular risk and is highly prevalent: The minority of adults (46.6%) in the US have on-target total cholesterol levels (<200mg/dL).1 With cardiovascular disease (CVD) responsible for one in every…

by Bianca Garilli, ND A reduction in muscle mass, strength, and function reduce the independence and health of aging adults. Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle tissue typically associated with the natural aging process, also increases the risk for morbidity and mortality through its association with chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. The greater the degree of sarcopenia, the higher the risk of these disease processes.1-2  Sarcopenia can be slowed through routine engagement in exercise, including strength or resistance…