Blogs

Here's an e-mail that I received over the weekend from a fellow who I consulted for this past winter:

"Hey Dr. Ben:

To follow up, I am ecstatic to report that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING has gotten better since we last spoke.

I have been religious about not snacking after dinner. You know that I was skeptical that this alone could fix my belly, but I stand humbled. Read more

A few weeks ago, I posted a letter that I received from a client who used regular intake of lettuce and cherries to strengthen her teeth.

In learning about this, a reader in Toronto, Ontario decided to try eating blended lettuce salads daily to address chronic sensitivity that she had in a back molar. She wrote to let me know that within two days of eating blended lettuce salads, her GI tract became highly uncomfortable, as though she had non-stop inflammation in her stomach. Read more

If you connect with those who encourage a 100% raw food diet for optimal health, I hope that you'll read this post with an open mind.

In my experience, eating plenty of fresh, nutrient-rich raw foods is a huge plus for most people. But where there is a long history of gastrointestinal distress, I have consistently found that during the initial phases of healing and recovery, it's actually better to eat more cooked foods than raw. Read more

If I could choose just one exercise to do regularly to prevent low back pain, it would be the yoga pose that you see below. This simple pose - often called a form of "Warrior Pose" - combines two actions that I have found to be critical for preventing chronic low back pain. Read more

If you're a believer in taking some time each day to meditate, pray, or simply relax on a lushly padded yoga mat to help restore peace and balance within, I hope that the following instrumental tracks from "The Descendants" are helpful to your sessions. I've been listening to these tracks for a few weeks now and I simply cannot get enough of them. Read more

When helping people fast on water only for two or more weeks at a time, it's relatively common to run into palpitations.

Often times, such palpitations go away once electrolyte-rich foods are introduced during the re-feeding process - half watermelon and half celery juice is the formula that I rely on most for this purpose (an infinitely healthier and more effective electrolyte-replacement drink than Gatorade or anything else you'll find in a pre-packaged bottle). Read more

Parents and child caregivers should be aware that unexplained vomiting, abdominal pain, and fever can sometimes be caused by ingestion of small, high powered magnets. Canadian pediatricians discuss this issue at length in an early 2013 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Read more

In showing how to use a ball and foam roller to massage the inner hip area, I neglected to illustrate static stretches for the inner thigh and groin regions. Read more

I'm constantly on the lookout for recipes that call for red beets; per ounce, few foods that I'm aware of are as dense in a variety of nutrients that can help prevent heart disease and certain types of cancer, especially colon cancer. Red beets are particularly rich in B vitamins, including folate, which makes them useful for lowering blood homocysteine and preventing birth defects. Read more