Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic, episodic intestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain and altered bowel habits. It affects 1 in 7 Americans, although most go undiagnosed. IBS can have a substantial impact on well-being and health, but......

Studies suggest that excessive consumption of animal protein poses a risk of kidney stone formation, likely due to the acid load contributed by the high content of sulfur-containing amino acids in animal protein, a topic I explore in my......

Many successful herbal treatments start like this: Some doctor learns that some plant has been used in some ancient medical tradition, like ginger for headaches. Well, the physician has patients with headaches and so tries advising one with migraines......

One of the most common fears patients express when facing surgery is postoperative nausea, which can range from minor queasiness to protracted periods of vomiting. Feeling sick to one's stomach and throwing up after surgery is a common problem,......

A review in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology notes oatmeal has been used for centuries as a topical soothing agent on the skin to relieve itch and irritation in dermatology. Of course, that was coming from Johnson &......

The spice turmeric may help prevent Alzheimer's disease (See Preventing Alzheimer's with Turmeric), but what about treating Alzheimer's disease with turmeric? An exciting case series was published in 2012 (highlighted in my video, Treating Alzheimer's with Turmeric): three Alzheimer's......

Why don't more doctors practice preventive cardiology? Time availability is a reason frequently cited by physicians, but if you probe a little deeper, the number one reason given was their perception that patients fear being deprived of all the......

Over the last 40 years, the burden of gout, a painful inflammatory arthritis, has risen considerably, now affecting millions of Americans. In fact, gout is now the most common inflammatory arthritis in men and older women. In my video,......

In just one decade, the number of people with diabetes has more than doubled. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, by 2050, one out of every three of us may have diabetes. What's the big deal?......

...

How did doctors treat diabetes before insulin? Almost a thousand medicinal plants are known antidiabetic agents, including beans, most of which have been used in traditional medicine. Of course, just because something has been used for centuries doesn't mean......

A Nutritional Update for Physicians was published in the official journal of Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care organization in the United States. It told physicians that healthy eating may best be achieved with a plant-based diet, defined as......

How else can we make decisions for ourselves and our families but by the best available balance of evidence? The latest meta-analysis, pooling data from more than a dozen studies involving more than 300,000 people, indicates that there is......

In my video, Turmeric Curcumin and Colon Cancer, I talked about a study where researchers showed that, by taking curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spices turmeric and curry powder, those at high risk for colon cancer could cut......

Long-distance runners and cross-fit athletes alike know it well: Delayed-onset muscle soreness is the discomfort that starts the day after a particularly grueling workout, caused by micro-tears in the muscle that lead to inflammation. The leading pharmaceutical interventions are......

Haggis, the national dish of Scotland, is a savory pudding of heart, liver, lungs, and oatmeal traditionally stuffed inside of a stomach. When that stomach goes into our own stomach, our digestive enzymes and stomach acid have no problem......

Physical inactivity has been called the biggest public health problem of the 21st century. Of course just because someone calls it that doesn't mean it's true, in fact physical inactivity ranks down at #5 in terms of risk factors......

In 1903, Thomas Edison predicted that the doctor of the future will give no medicine, but instead "instruct his patient in the care of the human frame in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease." A hundred......

During the last decade, the drug industry has followed an assumption that a single drug hitting a single target was the "rational" way to design drugs. We're learning that Mother Nature may be a bit too complicated for that.......

Since ancient times, Mother Nature has been a fertile source for drugs used to treat human diseases. One such remedy is the spice turmeric, specifically known for its naturally-yellow compound, curcumin, which has been used for at least 2,500......

Plants live the ultimate sedentary lifestyle--most of us usually think of plants more as objects than as organisms. Because plants can't move, they've had to evolve a whole other way to escape threats to their well-being. Plants can "sense......

When he was a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. published a controversial paper in the American Journal of Cardiology, highlighted in my video, Fully Consensual Heart Disease Treatment, noting that heart bypass operations carry significant......

Aromatherapy -- the use of concentrated essential oils extracted from plants to treat disease -- is commonly used to treat anxiety symptoms. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent class of psychiatric disorders in the general population. However, their treatment......

Following flax and wheatgrass, turmeric is the third best-selling botanical dietary supplement, racking up $12 million in sales. Currently, sales are increasing at a rate of 20%. "Curcumin is a natural plant product extracted from the turmeric root and......

"Historians from all around the world have produced evidence to show that apparently all primitive peoples used herbs-often in a sophisticated way. Quinine from Cinchona bark was used to treat the symptoms of malaria long before the disease was......