Why Health Coaches Are Behavior Change Ninjas

Think about how different our medical system would be if all doctors were required to have an extreme health crisis before practicing medicine. It’s through those toughest times with our own health that many of us turn to Functional Medicine, as we realize conventional care isn’t getting us what we need. But sometimes, being so involved in treating others’ diseases makes it difficult for doctors to even see our own symptoms for what they really are. This week’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy, Dr. Cynthia Li, is here to share her personal journey through autoimmunity and realizing her symptoms had deeper meaning. Dr. Li received her medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She’s practiced as an internist in many settings, including Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, San Francisco General Hospital, and St. Anthony Medical Clinic serving the homeless. She currently has a private practice in Berkeley, CA and recently published her first book which I highly recommend, Brave New Medicine: A Doctor's Unconventional Path to Healing Her Autoimmune Illness. This episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy is brought to you by Thrive Market and by SomniFix.  Thrive Market has made it so easy for me to stay healthy, even with my intense travel schedule. I never let myself get into a food emergency. Instead, I always carry enough food with me when I’m on the go, for at least a full day. I order real, whole foods online from Thrive Market. Right now, Thrive is offering all Doctor’s Farmacy listeners a great deal: you will receive an extra 25% off your first purchase plus a free 30-day membership to Thrive. There’s no minimum amount to buy and no code at checkout. All you have to do is head over to http://thrivemarket.com/farmacy Most of us aren’t getting our best rest. But there is actually a proven solution I’ve found for getting high-quality rest, simply by helping you breathe through your nose instead of your mouth. They’re called SomniFix Strips. Breathing through your nose has so many benefits—it protects against mouth dryness and nasal congestion, boosts oxygen saturation for enhanced focus, and helps naturally produce nitric oxide that kills bacteria and supports immunity. SomniFix is now offering all Doctor’s Farmacy listeners 15% off of your first order. Just go to somnifix.com, and use the code FARMACY at checkout.

2 Okt 20191h 21min

The health of our digestive system greatly impacts the health of our whole body. This is because our gut is designed to help us digest food, absorb nutrients, keep invaders out, and even produce helpful compounds like the neurotransmitter serotonin, among so many other powerful functions. This is why the whole body will suffer when the gut is out of balance. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with Dr. Stanley Hazen about how the microbiome can influence disease risk and why this is an essential piece to the future of medicine. He also talks to Dr. David Perlmutter about how what we eat influences everything from our mood to our tiniest gut friends—microbes—and how well they function and fight off invaders.  Dr. Stanley Hazen is both the chair of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine at the Lerner Research Institute and section head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation at the Heart and Vascular Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. He’s published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles and has over 50 patents from his pioneering discoveries in atherosclerosis and inflammatory disease. Dr. Hazen made the seminal discovery linking microbial pathways to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Dr. David Perlmutter is a board-certified neurologist and four-time New York Times best selling author. He serves on the Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and as a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. His books include the #1 New York Times bestseller, “Grain Brain,” “The Surprising Truth About Wheat,” “Carbs and Sugar,” with over 1 million copies in print. He is the editor of the upcoming collection, “The Microbiome and the Brain,” that will be authored by top experts in the field and will be published in 2019 by CRC Press. Dr. Perlmutter’s new book, “Brain Wash,” co-written with Austin Perlmutter, MD, will be published in January 2020. Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full length conversation with Dr. Hazen https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrStanleyHazen Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full length conversation with Dr. Perlmutter: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrDavidPerlmutter

27 Sep 201910min

Soil is the most important answer to climate change, and also one of the most underappreciated. Without soil, we have no food, and I don’t think I need to elaborate on how catastrophic that would be. The positive news is that we can work on our soil integrity right now to preserve it for many future generations to come—you might be surprised that using regeneratively raised cattle is part of that solution. There is still hope for our children and grandchildren to inherit a balanced and beautiful planet with abundant food production.  Because we rely on soil for food production, big companies are starting to pay attention to the work that needs to be done to preserve it. My guest on this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, Tom Newmark, is helping them understand what they can do and how to get involved in saving our soils. Tom was CEO of the dietary supplement brand New Chapter, which was acquired by Proctor & Gamble about seven years ago. Since that time Tom has focused on environmental activism with specific attention on regenerative agriculture. He is the co-owner of Finca Luna Nueva Lodge, an organic and biodynamic farm and ecolodge in the mountainous rainforest of Costa Rica that teaches regenerative agriculture. Tom is the co-founder and board chair of The Carbon Underground, co-founder of the Soil Carbon Initiative, and a founding member of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative of California State University – Chico. This episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy is brought to you by ButcherBox. Now through September 29, 2019, new subscribers to ButcherBox will receive ground beef for life. When you sign up today, ButcherBox will send you 2lbs of 100% pasture-raised grass-fed, grass finished beef free in every box for the life of your subscription. Plus listeners will get an additional $20 off their first box. All you have to do is head over to ButcherBox.com/farmacy

25 Sep 20191h 30min

As a society, we have been brainwashed into thinking that cooking real food costs too much, is too hard, and takes too long. Fast food manufacturers and grocers lure us into convenient, heavily processed meals that take a toll on our health and our wallet. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with Marco Canora and Ocean Robbins about reframing our relationship to cooking and how it can save us time and money, improve our health, and even combat food waste. As a chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, Marco Canora promotes delicious, simple, and healthful food. In 2003, he opened Hearth in Manhattan, which has a positive two-star review from The New York Times and a prestigious “Outstanding Restaurant" nomination from the James Beard Foundation. In 2017 Marco won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef NYC. Marco is also the founder of Brodo, a popular to-go window serving coffee cups of hot, nourishing bone broths.  Ocean Robbins is the author of 31-Day Food Revolution: Heal Your Body, Feel Great, & Transform Your World. He serves as CEO and co-founder of the Food Revolution Network—one of the largest communities of healthy eating advocates on the planet, with more than 500,000 members. Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Marco Canora: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/MarcoCanora Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Ocean Robbins: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/OceanRobbins

20 Sep 20199min

Trauma comes in many forms, and it’s something we’re all going to face at one point or another. Though it might seem in the moment that we should push away negative feelings and pretend everything is fine, true healing can’t happen unless we open ourselves to our traumatic experiences and work through them. Despite what many of us in search of help have been told, this doesn’t necessarily need to involve years of therapy or countless medications—we already have tools existing within each of us to work through the emotional, mental, and physical effects of trauma and feel happier and healthier. I think you’ll be surprised just how accessible some of these solutions are.  This week on The Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m joined by Dr. Jim Gordon to take a further look into healing trauma. He is one of the most extraordinary men I've ever met and I’ve been lucky to call him a friend for 20 years. Dr. Gordon is the author of The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma and is a Harvard educated psychiatrist and a world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression, anxiety, and psychological trauma. He has worked with traumatized children and families in Bosnia, Gaza, Haiti, post-9/11 New York, and Parkland, among many other areas across the world facing tragedy and trauma. Dr. Gordon also works with veterans and active-duty military to address PTSD. This episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy is brought to you by Thrive Market. Thrive Market has made it so easy for me to stay healthy, even with my intense travel schedule. I never let myself get into a food emergency. Instead, I always carry enough food with me when I’m on the go, for at least a full day. I order real, whole foods online from Thrive Market. Right now, Thrive is offering all Doctor’s Farmacy listeners a great deal: you will receive an extra 25% off your first purchase plus a free 30-day membership to Thrive. There’s no minimum amount to buy and no code at checkout. All you have to do is head over to http://thrivemarket.com/farmacy

18 Sep 20191h 11min

Among the major superpowers of our stem cells is their ability to self renew. Stem cells can also sense damaged cells and tissues and send signals that promote self-healing. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with Dr. William Li about the things that both enhance, and impair, our body’s regenerative abilities, including our diet. Dr. Li shares information on which foods have been scientifically proven to activate our body’s stem cells. William Li, MD, is a world-renowned physician, scientist, speaker, and author of Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself. He is best known for leading the Angiogenesis Foundation. His groundbreaking work has impacted more than 70 diseases including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease, and obesity. His TED Talk, “Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?” has garnered more than 11 million views. An author of over 100 scientific publications in leading journals such as Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and more, Dr. Li has served on the faculties of Harvard, Tufts, and Dartmouth Medical School. Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. Li: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrLi

13 Sep 20198min

Age is not the definitive factor it’s made out to be when it comes to our health. We can use our age as a baseline for tracking our health and longevity, but it isn’t stagnant. For example, certain types of testing can help us compare our biological age to our calendar age in order to tinker with our wellness routine and achieve the milestones we’re after. With the right steps, we can slow down and even sometimes reverse the aging process. When it comes to our biological age, or the measure of how well our body is actually functioning for whatever life stage we are in, there are many things that impact it. Diet, lifestyle patterns like exercise and sleep, and stress are all involved in forming our biological age, along with many other factors like blood sugar, inflammation, and genetics. This week on The Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m joined by Dr. David Sinclair to explore the topic of longevity and anti-aging and how he reduced his own internal age by more than 20 years. Dr. Sinclair is a professor in the Department of Genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School, where he and his colleagues study longevity, aging, and how to slow its effects.  This episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy is brought to you by ButcherBox. Now through September 29, 2019, new subscribers to ButcherBox will receive ground beef for life. When you sign up today, ButcherBox will send you 2lbs of 100% pasture-raised grass-fed, grass finished beef free in every box for the life of your subscription. Plus listeners will get an additional $20 off their first box. All you have to do is head over to ButcherBox.com/farmacy

11 Sep 20191h 6min

While we are in an incredibly exciting time when it comes to preventing and reversing disease, issues such as misleading scientific research, imperfect policy, corporate financial interests, and other biases often act as roadblocks to enhancing the health of our population and our planet. Yet, when we recently reflected on a number of conversations from The Doctor’s Farmacy, we couldn’t help but hear a common and hopeful message. In this mini-episode, we revisit four conversations Dr. Hyman has had with guests on this podcast, each with a common refrain: Progress is being made and it’s happening fast!  Michael Pollan is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Botany of Desire, and his latest book How to Change Your Mind, which is all about the new science of psychedelics. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley where he is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Science Journalism. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. Dr. Hallberg is a Medical Director at Virta Health and a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Health Innovator Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She is also the Medical Director and founder of the Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program at Indiana University Health Arnett and an adjunct Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Hallberg is serving as Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council for The Nutrition Coalition. Dr. Hallberg is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Obesity Medicine, and The American Board of Clinical Lipidology and is a Registered Exercise Physiologist by the ACSM. She is also a Fellow of the Obesity Medicine Association and The National Lipid Association. David Wallace-Wells is the deputy editor of New York magazine and the author of the international bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, published in February 2019, which the New York Times called both “brilliant” and “the most terrifying book I have ever read.” Dr. Sonia Angell is a former Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), where she oversaw the Division of Prevention and Primary Care. Dr. Angell is a practicing physician, board certified in internal medicine, and on faculty at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full length conversation with Michael Pollan: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/MichaelPollan Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full length conversation with Dr. Sarah Hallberg: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrSarahHallberg Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full length conversation with David Wallace-Wells: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DavidWallaceWells Tune into Dr. Hyman’s full length conversation with Dr. Sonia Angell: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrSoniaAngell

6 Sep 20198min