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Did You Enjoy that Extra Hour of Sleep this Weekend?

Welcome back to standard time, folks… did you remember to set your clocks back this weekend?
One more question: did you notice it was much easier to adjust to the time change this weekend than to the switch to daylight savings time in the spring? It seems logical, since we “gained” an hour of sleep on Saturday night.

Is Vitamin D Good for the Heart or Not?

Based on much recent research linking low levels of vitamin D to increased risk of heart disease, this is something I measure in all of my older patients. If low, supplementation is simple, cheap, and can effectively raise those levels back up. This is especially important at this time of year, since the sun is not strong enough to produce any vitamin D from skin exposure at our latitude.

Natural Medicine Myth #3: Systemic Candida

This is a continuation of my series (in no particular order) on misperceptions in the field of natural medicine. My previous articles focused on policosanol and cinnamon.

In the 1980s, a medical doctor by the name of William Crook published a book called The Yeast Connection.

Natural Medicine Myth #2: Cinnamon

Starting with last week’s article about policosanol, I have been outlining five of the most common misperceptions I encounter in the field of natural medicine, and examine some more effective alternatives.

Myth #2: Cinnamon controls blood sugar (or even “cures” diabetes).
T’ype 2 diabetes and “pre-diabetes” (insulin resistance) are on the rise in the U.S.,

Top 5 “Myths” in Natural Medicine

As a doctor of naturopathic medicine, I have years of experience and training to respect the vis medicatrix naturae, or healing power of nature. This is foundational to our approach to health. I also have a background in science, and know that it is important to examine natural methods of health care to see if they are valid and effective.

More Good News for Chocolate

Ah, how times change. Just a few years ago, chocolate was undoubtedly in the junk food category, yet a flurry of recent research has confirmed its benefits to cardiovascular health. The latest is a study from Sweden published last month (1) that showed that higher chocolate consumption cut men’s stroke risk by 17%.

Why I’m Still Eating Organic Foods

A study about organic food published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine (1) made big headlines, mostly along the lines of “organic food is no better for you than conventionally grown food.” As usual, the headlines tend to gloss over the details of the research that was conducted. Several points are worth noting,

When Does a “Normal” Blood Sugar Test Mean a 53% Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease?

By Andrew Peters, DC, ND | September 4, 2012 | Like | Leave a comment |

Answer: When it’s at the upper end of the normal range.

A fasting blood glucose (FBG) test is one of the most common labs I order. The normal range for FBG is 60-99 mg/dl. If this reading of blood sugar is much too high (greater than 126 mg/dl) on two separate tests, that is the definition of diabetes.

Great Science on What We Should Eat

In recent years, medical researchers have recognized some common denominators in chronic degenerative diseases: insulin resistance, long-term inflammation, high blood pressure, and cholesterol imbalance (to name a few). In fact, several of these factors have been grouped together to form metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms including at least 3 of the following 5 conditions:

Fasting blood sugar (glucose) ≥100 mg/dL
Blood pressure ≥130/85 mm Hg
Triglycerides ≥150 mg/dL
HDL-C (“good cholesterol”) <

Transitions

It’s that time of year.

Yes, the weather is still blazing summer heat (though we’ve finally been getting a break now and then!), but we hit a transition in the last couple of weeks. Somewhere in there, we reached the point where it’s still dark outside when my 5:30am alarm goes off. There’s about a three-month period —

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