What Does Food Have To Do With COVID-19?

Food impacts everything, which is why changing the way we eat and working towards a new food system can be so powerful and far-reaching. Cooking at home used to be the norm but it’s become the exception. Food marketing has convinced us our kitchens are holding us hostage and that true freedom is convenience, found in packaged and fast foods. In fact, 50% of meals are now eaten away from home.  That’s why cooking at home is a revolutionary act. When we prepare our own meals, we can control what’s really going into our bodies, and we also get to buy ingredients that meet our standards and values, like humane treatment of farmworkers and animals. Today’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy is one of my personal mentors and idols as a leader in the food movement. Mark Bittman is the author of more than 20 acclaimed books, including the How to Cook Everything series. He was a food columnist, opinion columnist, and the lead magazine food writer at the New York Times, where he started writing in 1984 and still writes occasionally. Mark is currently a member of the faculty of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and is writing a new cookbook called Dinner for Everyone to share how simple and delicious it can be to cook at home, no matter what your dietary preferences are. 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

7 Aug 20191h 4min

Epigenetics suggests that our behavior can influence which of our genes are turned on or off. This has been one of the biggest breakthroughs in medicine. Predisposition is not pre-destiny and a familial history of disease does not render you powerless. In this mini-episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, we revisit two recent interviews in which Dr. Hyman and his guests discuss epigenetics and how things like food, movement, sleep, detoxification, and mindfulness influence our genes to create health or disease.  Dr. Marwan Sabbagh is a board-certified neurologist and considered one of the leading experts in Alzheimer’s and dementia. He is on the editorial board for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and BMC Neurology and is now editor in chief of Neurology and Therapy and is the author of The Alzheimer’s Answer: Reduce Your Risk and Keep Your Brain Healthy, and The Alzheimer’s Prevention Cookbook: 100 Recipes to Boost Brain Health. Dr. Sabbagh’s latest book is, Fighting for My Life: How to Thrive in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s. Alberto Villoldo is a medical anthropologist and psychologist. He is the founder of the world-renowned Four Winds Society and of the Light Body School. Alberto has authored several incredible books including his latest book, Grow A New Body. Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length interview with Dr. Marwan Sabbagh https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrMarwanSabbagh Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length interview with Alberto Villoldo https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/AlbertoVilloldo

2 Aug 201910min

When it comes to aging well, we all have to set our own standards and goals. That might mean playing with your grandkids on the floor, carrying groceries up several flights of stairs, or being able to be present emotionally and mentally for your spouse. Thinking of these detailed goals helps us reverse engineer our lives to achieve the quality and longevity in life we truly desire. It just takes a little thought and planning, and of course the right actions to make it happen.  Today’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy, Dr. Peter Attia, shares his own story of setting those kinds of goals, a process called backcasting, and how he overcame obesity and pre-diabetes by establishing a foundation of healthier aging. Dr. Attia is the founder of Attia Medical, PC, a medical practice with offices in San Diego and New York City, focusing on the applied science of longevity. His approach focuses on increasing lifespan by delaying the onset of chronic disease, while simultaneously improving “healthspan,” or quality of life. To do this, his practice applies nutritional biochemistry, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, techniques to increase distress tolerance, lipidology, pharmacology, and endocrinology.

31 Jul 20191h 34min

Lack of community and strong social connection can have a disastrous outcome on your health, which is why taking the time to strengthen existing relationships and build your personal community is an integral part of any wellness plan. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman talks to Radha Agrawal about the importance of fostering a loving community, starting with going inward and acknowledging our own values and gifts and then taking those gifts out into the world to make friendships that matter. He also sits down with Marie Forleo to discuss the power of community and the idea that friend power is more powerful than willpower.  Radha Agrwal is the Co-founder, CEO, and Chief Community Architect of Daybreaker, the early morning dance and wellness move-ment. She is also the author of Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life. Named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation and one of Inc.’s 500 fastest growing companies, Marie Forleo is the creator of the award-winning online show MarieTV and is also the founder of B-School, an online business school for modern entrepreneurs. Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length interview with Radha Agrawal https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/RadhaAgrawal Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length interview with Marie Forleo https://drmarkhyman.lnk.to/marieforleo

26 Jul 201910min

I often talk about the importance of high-quality restful sleep and getting the right amount when it comes to creating great health. But what about the role of dreaming? You might be surprised to learn that the way we dream can have a multitude of benefits on our waking life—specifically through lucid dreaming, or the act of knowing we are dreaming while we are, in fact, completely asleep. To dig into this intriguing topic further, I sat down with expert lucid-dreamer Charlie Morley on this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy.  Charlie is a bestselling author and teacher of lucid dreaming and shadow integration. He was authorized to teach within the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism by Lama Yeshe Rinpoche in 2008 and has since developed a holistic approach to dreamwork called Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep, and has written three books which have been translated into 13 languages. In 2018 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship grant to research mindfulness-based PTSD treatment and continues to teach on retreats for armed forces veterans. In this lively conversation, Charlie and I get into why lucid dreaming is such a powerful technique.

24 Jul 20191h 13min

A few decades ago, most people didn’t know anything about gluten. Today there is an unmistakable trend of people going gluten-free in the hopes of solving all of their gut woes. Why is this? In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman explores this question with the world’s top gluten expert, Dr. Alessio Fasano. Dr. Fasano founded the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1996. In 2013, he moved the Center to Massachusetts General Hospital and renamed it the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment. He is chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Find Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. Fassano here: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrAlessioFasano

19 Jul 201911min

Climate change is not moving as slowly as we’d like to think. In fact, half of all the damage done through burning fossil fuels has been just over the last 30 years. Unfortunately, every year is now more damaging than the last. The good news is that we are not at a point of no return. While we will never have the same climate we had before industrialization, we can make a positive impact on the future of climate change by taking action now.  My guest on this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy is here to tell us how. 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." While the real truth about climate change can be scary, it’s a more important conversation than ever. Throughout our talk, David shares the history of climate change and the three major issues at hand: speed, scope, and severity.

17 Jul 20191h 21min

For so long we were told that having low LDL cholesterol is the key to preventing heart disease, which led to doctors overprescribing statins to keep LDL low. Many people still believe that eating cholesterol and fat, especially saturated fat, causes heart attacks and that taking statin drugs provides a powerful way to reduce your risk of heart attacks. But is this really true? In this mini-episode Dr. Hyman sits down with internationally renowned Consultant Cardiologist and best-selling author of The Pioppi Diet, Dr. Aseem Malhotra. Dr. Malhotra has become one of the most influential and well-known health campaigners, and a pioneer of the lifestyle medicine movement in the UK. Together, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Malhotra discuss the effectiveness of statin drugs on heart disease, and Dr. Malhotra discusses why he believes that reducing insulin resistance may be the key to better heart health.  Find Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. Aseem Malhotra  https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/AseemMalhotra

12 Jul 201911min