When heartburn occurs more than only occasionally, and you find yourself spending many nights awake burping up hot acid into your throat, you may actually have acid reflux disease. It has the same symptoms as common heartburn but it is caused by something more than the occasional dietary lapse. Here’s what I tell my patients about acid reflux.
I call DHEA the “anti-stress hormone.” It’s the most abundant product of the adrenal glands. DHEA is the precursor used by your body to produce sex hormones like testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. You have a lot when you’re young but production dwindles with age.
Athlete’s foot and jock itch won’t kill you, but they sure can make you uncomfortable. Both of these annoying conditions are caused by the same fungus, the tinea fungus. Fortunately, tinea infections are easy to prevent and easy to treat.
I see a lot of men in my office who’ve gotten mixed signals about testosterone. Testosterone is the hormone that makes a man a man, so to speak. But sometimes testosterone gets a bad rap. In the medical community some say it causes aggressive behavior or irritability, extra hair growth, and other problems. On the flip side of the coin you need testosterone to have a healthy libido, good muscle tone, and good energy. So, what’s a guy to do?
Most of my male patients will chalk osteoporosis up to being a woman’s disease. And it is true that 80% of osteoporosis cases happen to women. But I want to give all you men out there two reasons to take osteoporosis seriously.
Heart disease and related cardiovascular diseases claim nearly half a million lives in this country each year. There’s no wonder why doctors and medical researchers have grasped onto a pharmaceutical to fight this killer. Statin drugs like Lipitor are the most-prescribed drugs in the country.
Homocysteine is an amino acid that your body uses as part of its metabolism. In a normal, healthy person, the body cleans up any excess homocysteine. But if you don’t have the right nutrients available then your homocysteine levels begin to climb. Doctors use a blood test to measure homocysteine. If your levels get up above nine, then your risk of cardiovascular diseases begins to increase.
Recently there’s been a lot of discussion about slowing the aging process down through a calorie-restricted diet. And the preliminary research about this calorie-restricted dieting suggests that it may be the most promising strategy to increase longevity.
Nearly all vegetables are rich in antioxidants. And it’s been proven that antioxidants are effective at neutralizing free radicals in your body. As I have mention in the past it’s these free radical scavengers that can lead to cellular damage and possibly some form of cancer. So, it makes sense that eating more vegetables can not only be good for you…but help prevent cancer.
You can’t help learning a lot about what you eat from food labels. And here’s an interesting observation. Foods containing “0g of trans fat” are all over the place. Your favorite crackers, cookies, and potato chips now proudly proclaim their trans-fat free status.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? How messages stick with us even after they’ve been proven false? I see patients every day that still buy into the low-fat dieting myth. We stop eating many of our favorite foods. Steak, for instance. A low fat diet will take you straight down the path toward weight gain and chronic disease.
All these medical warnings will probably not stop many of you from having those sudden urges for sweets. And they shouldn’t! The satisfying of your sweet tooth is a human desire. So here are a few natural substitutes that can serve a healthy and fun way to eat.