Search Results for: Sara Gottfried, MD

by Sara Gottfried, MD Exercise is key to overall health, but sometimes the wrong approach can do more harm than good. It’s likely one of the reasons you’ve encountered patients who are struggling to achieve results despite every effort to lose weight and improve their health. Thankfully, there’s more to the story. We sat down with Sara Gottfried, MD to discuss the connection between exercise, hormones, and healthy weight loss. Sometimes exercising too much can make it more difficult for…

by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD Abstract. Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, is not a single disease. It encompasses three different pathophysiological processes that involve the heart or the blood vessels. When considering whether omega-3 fatty acids have any benefit for our cardiovascular system, there is an enormous amount of misinformation in the news and reputable medical journals. Several articles state that omega-3 fatty acids have no role in cardiovascular disease, but…

Get the inside scoop from Sara Gottfried, MD on the latest research on intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, and the relationship to your metabolism and detoxification abilities. Explore several periodic fasting regimens and how to implement them.

by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD The top five cardiovascular risk factors are hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, obesity and smoking. Numerous clinical trials suggest that we have reached  a limit in our ability to lower the incidence of coronary heart disease with conventional diagnostic evaluation, prevention and treatment strategies for these risk factors. About 80% of heart disease (heart attacks, angina, coronary heart disease and congestive heart failure) can be prevented by optimal nutrition, optimal exercise, optimal weight…

by Sara Gottfried, MD and Noelle Patno, PhD As our understanding of the gut microbiome expands, many questions remain about the clinical relevance—particularly how emerging concepts translate into the front lines of patient care, including best practices for probiotics. What is a probiotic? Why use one, and what are the most well-substantiated clinical situations in which they affect patient outcomes? What is the mechanism of action for probiotics? How do we know probiotics “work” in our patients? How can I…

by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD Abstract. Hypertension is the most common and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Rather than a disease, hypertension is a manifestation of an abnormal vascular system. Therein is both the problem and opportunity: we need a systems biology approach to address the root cause of hypertension and reduce our patient’s risk of cardiovascular disease. In 2017, new guidelines lowered the criteria for the diagnosis of hypertension from 140/90 to 130/80. As more patients…

by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD In the past, most of the emphasis on treating dyslipidemia and dyslipidemia-induced heart disease such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infarction (MI) was directed toward low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (LDL-C). The mainstay in the traditional cardiovascular community for treating LDL-C has been to prescribe statins. Herein a two-fold problem emerges. First, many people cannot take statins due to their adverse effects; others choose not to take them. Second, evaluation of…

by Sara Gottfried, MD and Kari Hamrick, PhD, RD Did you grow up with parents who told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?  The word “breakfast” comes from breaking the overnight fasting period, and replenishing the body with a supply of glucose and other nutrients. It implies a period of metabolic rest that we know from ancestral health is beneficial, but in recent time, that period has shortened. While physicians and dietitians have touted the…

 by Mark Houston, MD and Sara Gottfried, MD A precision and personalized medicine approach to dyslipidemia and dyslipidemia- induced cardiovascular disease—including high LDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and HDL function, and other related cardiometabolic conditions such as insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome—is completely different from the conventional medicine approach. In this article, we will review the major paradigm shift that has emerged in the past 10 to 15 years regarding HDL, which is best known for its…

by Sara Gottfried, MD and Elnaz Karimian-Azari, PhD The endocannabinoid system is a fascinating network involved in regulating many physiological, homeostatic, and cognitive functions—including appetite, immune function, pain, metabolism and energy balance, stress response, anxiety, mood, fertility, pregnancy, pre- and postnatal development, memory, and neurogenesis, as well as the well-known pharmacological effects of cannabis.1,2 In our developing understanding of network medicine, it’s important as clinicians to understand that the endocannabinoid system plays a role far beyond getting high and impacts…