Hara hachi bu is a Confucian adage that dates back 2500 years and instructs people to eat until they are 80% full. The Okinawans from Japan use this mantra before every meal, enabling them to be mindful of their food consumption. Elderly Okinawans have among the lowest mortality rates in the world from a multitude… Continue reading Hunger games
How can we explain the observation that Pima Indians living in the Southwest United States have a five fold higher prevalence of diabetes than their counterparts living across the border in Mexico? Not only are these populations genetically identical, numerous studies have been unsuccessful in identifying chromosomal regions with a strong linkage to the trait.… Continue reading The ‘exposome’ exposed!
This question was recently posed to a group of allopathic trained health care professionals who answered with responses such as, “absence of disease,” “body, mind, and emotional wellness,” and “continuum between disease and total well being.” Although the responses seem vague and generalized, the descriptions were generally in line with the World Health Organization (WHO)… Continue reading What is health?
I would like to use this blog post to discuss a medical case in order to reflect on the current state of health care. Recently a family member Sam* had a transient ischemic attack (TIA or mini-stroke). Sam had a previous stroke and has a stent in the intra-cerebral portion of one of his arteries to… Continue reading A Real Life Example….