7 Reasons to Exercise Outdoors All Year Long

As we settle into autumn and anticipate winter, we tend to spend more of our active time indoors. We go to the gym instead of the park. We take a spinning class instead of a long bike ride. We climb a machine instead of a mountain. Shorter days and colder temperatures do make it more challenging to schedule outdoor activity, but it’s still as important as ever. Here are seven reasons to exercise outside whenever you can.

12 Pantry Staples For a Healthy Diet

A healthy diet is essential for a healthy body. One of the easiest ways to eat well is to cook at home, where you control the quality of ingredients. The foods you keep in your kitchen are the ones you’re going to cook and eat, so stocking a pantry full of healthy choices is a good way to make positive changes to any diet. Here are some staples to put on your grocery list if you don't already have them on hand.

6 Food-Based Toxins That Increase the Risk of Diabetes

Toxins are chemicals in the environment that are harmful to our health. Most of the time, we can’t see or smell or taste them, but they’re very real and we’re exposed to them every day. So far, research studies have identified six different toxins we ingest through food and water that are associated with an increased risk of diabetes, even in small doses that are well below acceptable levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Naturopathic Medicine Week

The United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution in 2013 designating the second week in October as Naturopathic Medicine Week.  This year it will be celebrated from October 5 through 11.

Preserving Your Summer Harvest

My trip to visit family in Minnesota this summer was well spent. We fit in a little bit of everything: hiking, canoeing, wine tasting, cooking, and relaxing with family and friends. To my good fortune, my sister Jennifer sent me home with dried versions of her garden's bounty and I will savor them all winter long.

15 Ways to Treat GERD Naturally

Approximately 6 out of 10 adults in the United States suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD, and 3 in 10 experience symptoms on a weekly basis. The most common symptoms are a burning sensation in the chest or throat and a sour taste in the mouth, but others exist: difficulty swallowing, sore throat, hoarseness, dry cough, regurgitation, the sensation of a lump in the throat, and even chest pain.

10 Ways to Detox Your Home

Opening the windows is one of my favorite things about warm weather, especially after a long winter of record-breaking snowfalls and low temperatures.

Reveling in sunshine and warmer temperatures and exchanging and circulating the air inside our homes is as good for our bodies as it is for our spirits. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air can be “more seriously polluted” than outdoor air, even in the largest and most industrialized cities.

While opening the windows helps reduce exposure to environmental toxins in the air, it’s just a start. There are lots of other ways to minimize toxic exposure inside our homes and these ten tips will help you get started.

5 Reasons to Avoid Artifical Sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners are popular among dieters and diabetics alike.  Because they don’t contain sugar or calories, they’re often recommended for people who have high levels of blood sugar and those who are overweight. This conventional wisdom is being turned upside down by studies showing that fake sweeteners can actually promote the diseases they’re marketed to prevent including prediabetes, type two diabetes, weight gain, and obesity. Artificial sweeteners have also been linked to changes in gut flora, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer.

Vitamin D: Should We Get it From Food, Supplements, or the Sun?

A new study found that vitamin D levels made a difference in the survival of patients with advanced colorectal cancer. The individuals who had higher levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream before they were treated with chemotherapy and biologic drugs lived longer, on average, compared to people with lower levels of vitamin D.

There's no doubt that vitamin D is important. It's a key nutrient for several systems in the body including the cardiovascular, neurological, and immune systems. And it regulates the activity of more than 3,000 different genes. Many people are deficient in vitamin D and for them the question is: Should it come from food, supplements, or the sun?

Natural and Non-Toxic Spring Cleaning

Cleaning products can contain dangerous chemicals that are often unlisted. In the United States, manufacturers are not required to disclose all of a product’s ingredients on the label, which makes it very difficult to evaluate their safety.

10 Ways to Prevent Cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, just behind heart disease, so it's no surprise that more and more of my patients are asking me about cancer prevention.

Prediabetes 101

Prediabetes is a worldwide epidemic and in the United States alone it affects an estimated 86 million people. It's being diagnosed in 1 in 3 adults (20 years and older), 1 in 2 older adults (65 years and older), and almost 1 in 4 adolescents (ages 12 through 18).

5 Ways to Relax Right Now

Relaxation is an important part of reversing prediabetes, staying healthy, and reducing the risk of some of the deadliest diseases in the United States including type two diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. When I bring up the subject of relaxation with my patients, they often tell me they’re too busy to relax. It takes too much time. They don’t know how. It doesn’t come naturally to them.

They would prefer to take a supplement and get on with their day, but that’s exactly why I recommend relaxation. Because it isn’t about taking something, it’s about doing something, and because people who think they have no time to relax are usually the ones who have the most to gain from trying it.

Detox Facts and Fiction

Detox products and protocols are increasingly popular, from raw food and vegan diets to footbaths and body wraps. These things may be good for us (or not) and they may reduce our exposure to toxins, but they don’t detoxify our bodies. A basic understanding of what detox is and what it isn’t can clear up any misconceptions.

5 Lifestyle Changes to Reverse Prediabetes

A healthy lifestyle is just as important as a healthy diet when it comes to reversing prediabetes and staying well. In fact, studies show that lifestyle interventions are the most effective treatment for reversing prediabetes, lowering hemoglobin A1C, decreasing high blood pressure, improving physical fitness, and promoting weight loss. The following five lifestyle changes will help you accomplish these goals and more.

Manuka Honey Skin Saver

This moisturizing DIY skin salve is full of some usual suspects -- cocoa butter, shea butter, and almond oil -- but it also contains something special: manuka honey. Apply it to your face, hands, or hair as an overnight moisturizer or use it as a spot treatment for dry and irritated skin.

5 Ways to Prevent Colds and Flu

Echinacea purpurea

When it comes to flu shots, the risks do not outweigh the benefits for most people. Fortunately, there are other strategies to prevent infection and stay healthy during cold and flu season. It's certainly important to minimize our exposure to viruses, but it's equally important to foster a strong immune system, so our bodies can fight off the germs that do breach our barriers. After all, everyone is exposed to cold and flu viruses, but not everyone gets sick.

6 Strategies to Make 2015 Your Healthiest Year Yet

Recently I enjoyed reading Atul Gawande's book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. It eloquently raises an issue that most physicians shy away from: The fact that we can't cure everyone. Some patients die. Eventually, we all die. So what matters most is how we live. And while a cure isn't always possible, healing always is. Everyone can heal on some level, physically or emotionally or both. Make 2015 your best year yet with these six strategies to help you heal.