Eat to Feel Good

The Diet Wars, Volume Two: The New Year’s Resolution Weight Loss Detox Every year, we all talk about it: New Year’s resolutions, weight loss, and getting fit.  Just about everybody thinks about shedding the few extra pounds of holiday indulgences that are making their pants fit a little tighter. Some people are determined to make this the year they will wear pants they haven’t been able to fit in for years. And the current fad now is to “detox.” So what really is the best weight loss plan, or detox plan? The most important thing to remember is what I

Are Vegan Diets Better?

The Diets War - Volume 1 I was recently interviewed for an article in Connecticut Magazine, asked about my thoughts on a vegan diet... and I wanted to expand upon the topic. The internet is full of recommendations and admonitions about what you should eat, and you don’t have to look around very long to realize many of these claims directly contradict each other. So how do you make sense of it all? Start by remembering what people most often forget: there is no one single healthy diet that is best for everyone. Different health conditions require different diets, and

Evidence-Based Medicine

You can find many different “magic” supplements that have claims of preventing cancer, promoting weight loss, clearing your skin and making you feel younger. We all wish that these were true. Unfortunately, there are many instances where herbs and nutrients that have no research to back them up are touted to cure all kinds of diseases. Even when there is a herb or nutrient that has shown to be effective for a given condition, there is very little quality control on most supplements (more on this in a later blog post). A great example of inflated health claims coming from

Understanding Your Body

Both Dr. Procyk and I are dedicated to helping you understand what is really going on inside your body. We spend time explaining what diagnoses mean or how different parts of the body function. We observe that people achieve greater wellness when they have the knowledge and information to be able to address their physical needs. Understanding Your Body through Education Many physicians blame patients for not being proactive about their health but I often notice that people do not really understand what is happening when they have conditions like increased blood pressure or diabetes. They relate to their diagnosis

I Want to Get off My Medications

“I want to get off of my medications.” Many people come to me wanting to discontinue their pharmaceutical medications either because they are experiencing unpleasant side effects or because they “just don’t like the idea of taking medications.” I often support people in getting off of medications but sometimes I talk people into staying on those medications because they may be the very best treatment. In other words, some medications are prescribed unnecessarily and others are life-saving treatments. Restore Balance to Eliminate Need for Medications I generally do not prescribe something to directly substitute a medication. Substituting herbs for a

Treatment Based on Cause

When people ask me how I treat a particular condition, I often answer “it depends.” As a functional medicine doctor, I treat the cause of the symptoms instead of managing the symptoms. For example, in pharmaceutical medicine, seasonal allergies are treated with an antihistamine. Antihistamines block the signal that your immune cells send out when they encounter an allergen. The antihistamines stop the allergic response at one of the last steps of the process. Functional medicine treatments for allergies are directed at correcting the root cause so treatment for allergies may include treatments for immune changes that begin in the

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