Millions of people around the world are suffering from long COVID, an umbrella term for chronic symptoms that might include fatigue, vertigo, POTS, and cognitive impairment. While it’s not uncommon for people to have lingering issues after any illness, the scope and scale of the COVID pandemic and the anomalous nature of this particular disease have created a quiet, but concerning crisis. On this week’s podcast, you’ll meet a psychologist whose work has shifted to supporting people struggling th...
May 25, 2023•37 min•Ep 569•Transcript available on Metacast People often lament that they prioritize others’ needs above their own, and they don’t know how to put themselves first. I believe most of us are mostly selfish, so I don’t think the problem is putting yourself first, I think the problem is putting self care first. People will overcommit to work, family, and community obligations, but ignore free times, exercise, and quiet solitude. I don’t believe that we’re all so altruistic that our days get vacuumed by charity work, I think our time is consu...
May 18, 2023•27 min•Ep 568•Transcript available on Metacast Do you have painful feet, bunions, hammertoes, or collapsed arches? If you’ve visited a podiatrist, you most likely ended up with some orthotic inserts and were sent on your way. Hopefully, those inserts worked! Most likely, they helped a little, but as the years have passed, your condition has progressively worsened. Is there anything you can do about it? On this week’s podcast, you’ll meet a functional podiatrist who will help you understand your options. Listen and learn: What a 15-min self-c...
May 10, 2023•36 min•Ep 567•Transcript available on Metacast It’s more difficult than ever to separate fact from journalistic or political fiction. The idea of “relative truth” has permeated almost every discussion, making it challenging to get straight answers to even some of the most basic questions. Does cholesterol matter or not? Are HPV vaccines safe or too risky? While media spin has always been a problem, it’s reached breaking point, and the majority of us feel disillusioned and frustrated. This week’s guest offers advice on how to identify and fig...
May 03, 2023•53 min•Ep 566•Transcript available on Metacast Most people are much more concerned with the quality of their life than the quantity. We hope to stay healthy, lucid, mobile, and engaged until our final days. How exactly to increase your chances of a strong finish is hotly debated, but as a 102-year-old doctor, our guest on this week’s podcast has a unique authority on the subject. Listen and learn: Why you need to find purpose and meaning The importance of love in the healing process How the body heals itself Why memories can provide a place ...
Apr 26, 2023•36 min•Ep 565•Transcript available on Metacast The average woman will spend one third of her life in menopause, and yet the public discourse and medical advice around this life stage is sorely lacking. Will hormone replacement therapy give you cancer? Will you be stuck on drugs for the rest of your life? Should you just wait it out and let nature run its course–or fight like mad against menopausal symptoms? On this week’s podcast, we meet a medical doctor committed to giving women more options, more agency, and a better quality of life durin...
Apr 19, 2023•34 min•Ep 564•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever felt excited about a new form of exercise, only to get sore muscles and then joint pain as soon as you start to see results? You take a couple days off, try ice and painkillers, but the pain always seems to come back and you’re not sure what to do about it. Should you keep going? Stop moving? See a doctor? Or try something else? On this week’s podcast, we’ll attempt to demystify the healing process. Listen and learn: Why patience might be the top necessity for healing The value of ...
Apr 12, 2023•40 min•Ep 563•Transcript available on Metacast Work can be one of the greatest sources of meaning and purpose in life; but it can also be a huge source of chronic stress and anxiety. Perhaps you’re tasked with more responsibilities than one person can feasibly manage; maybe you work with a toxic boss or colleague; or maybe your role just feels soul-sucking and the worry that this is it looms heavy on your mind. My guest on this week’s podcast will help you combat workplace anxiety. Listen and learn: How to overcome anxiety by doing an “Is it...
Apr 05, 2023•39 min•Ep 562•Transcript available on Metacast When you’re struggling with poor mental health, depression, anxiety, or low self esteem and you want to actively change your mindset, it’s difficult to know where to start. Should you consider therapy? Medication? What about starting in your kitchen? On this week’s podcast, we’ll explore taking a food-based approach to improving mental health. Listen and learn: The importance of Omega-3s, fiber, and whole food nutrition for your brain Why performance and behavioral problems at school might be di...
Mar 29, 2023•33 min•Ep 561•Transcript available on Metacast By 2035, it’s estimated that half the world’s population will be overweight. At the same time, we’ll likely continue to live longer and longer which means the financial cost and even more tragic loss of healthspan will be catastrophic. While the solution seems obvious, eat less and exercise more, things are not so simple in reality. I wonder if perhaps we’re asking the wrong questions about weight? What if the real question to ask is why we’re so hungry in the first place? On this week’s podcast...
Mar 22, 2023•37 min•Ep 560•Transcript available on Metacast The assault on our sleep really only began in earnest 75 years ago as the world became flooded with light, stimuli, shift work, and birthed the concept of a 24/7 world. Today, we're wired and tired, overworked and under rested. This is not news to you, but what might be When we think of high-risk jobs, we often think of underwater welders, fishing boat crew, and oil rig workers. But did you know that all shift work is also high risk? You're unlikely to have physical risks, but the metabolic, men...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep 559•Transcript available on Metacast There are over 400,000 hip replacement operations performed each year in the USA alone. While our modern healthcare systems struggle to produce positive outcomes in some areas, in others - joint replacements in particular - the progress is remarkable. A hip replacement used to be a last ditch effort to live pain-free, whereas today, people are regaining active lives earlier and success rates improve with each passing year. If you, or someone you love, is struggling with an arthritic hip and cons...
Mar 08, 2023•37 min•Ep 558•Transcript available on Metacast Are you familiar with the concept of being time poor? This is when you have your life more or less figured out, but you don’t have a spare minute in your schedule. Since time is your greatest asset, and is in short supply, why not buy some of it back if given the opportunity? For many of us, hiring help in our personal or professional lives seems too expensive, too indulgent, or just downright lazy. But many of us are living lives that are bigger than a 24 hour day, and the only way to get throu...
Mar 01, 2023•36 min•Ep 557•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever noticed that many cold and flu remedies contain little more than honey and water? Have you ever gone to the doctor feeling ill and felt significantly better almost straight away? The placebo effect is a long observed phenomenon in medicine, but the same expectation effect also impacts most other areas of life. If you read five-star reviews before visiting a restaurant, it primes you for a great experience. If you’re watching a film that everyone you know loves, you’re also far more...
Feb 22, 2023•39 min•Ep 556•Transcript available on Metacast There’s a saying: “If you want a new idea, read a history book.” That might be true 95 percent of the time, but for the remaining five percent of the time, particularly when looking for problem-solving techniques, the solution might demand a completely new approach. Lateral thinking is the idea of entering from the side door, flipping the problem on its head, and spitballing completely new solutions. On this week’s podcast, we discuss how to apply this technique to your life. Listen and learn: W...
Feb 15, 2023•33 min•Ep 555•Transcript available on Metacast An estimated 15 to 20 percent of the population will suffer from tinnitus at some point in their lives and hearing loss affects an even greater number. Yet so few of us take action and seek out medical help. With tremendous breakthroughs in both diagnostics and treatment, there has never been a better time than now to get your auditory health in order. On this week’s podcast, we meet an audiologist who can help. Listen and learn: Why tinnitus can be your brain trying to turn up the volume to hea...
Feb 08, 2023•39 min•Ep 554•Transcript available on Metacast Modern health trackers collect an amazing quantity of data daily, but most of it is descriptive, not actionable. Maybe your smart watch tells you that your sleep quality is poor, but do you know how to fix it? Maybe you learn your HRV is low, but how do you improve? All the information in the world means nothing if you don’t have a plan of how to adapt and grow from it. On this week’s podcast, discover how Dr. Erik Korem used qualified self-data in high performance sports and now uses it to help...
Feb 01, 2023•38 min•Ep 553•Transcript available on Metacast Our traditional healthcare systems offer amazing options for acute pain and injury, but for long-term, chronic, and subclinical pain, you’re mostly on your own. It’s more common than not for someone with chronic lower back or knee pain to have absolutely no idea what is wrong or how to fix it, and scans and doctors’ appointments often leave you with no clarity or guidance. In an attempt to fix ourselves, we stretch, strengthen, buy different shoes, and adjust our workstations. Sometimes it works...
Jan 25, 2023•34 min•Ep 552•Transcript available on Metacast In 1938 the Harvard Study of Adult Development began. It followed the lives of 268 Harvard students and 456 inner city kids in Boston, and remains the largest, longest study of its kind, gathering data on physical health, mental health, personality, and social connections. The study's findings have served as the basis for an impressive body of work on lifestyle fulfillment and happiness, and my guest on this week’s podcast has co-authored a book highlighting his learnings. Listen and learn: Why ...
Jan 18, 2023•37 min•Ep 551•Transcript available on Metacast For some forms of cancer, allopathic medical interventions are extremely effective; but for many cancers, outcomes are mixed and confusing. Like all things health, it’s clear that diet and lifestyle interventions can play a huge role in prevention, treatment, and possibly even reversing some forms of cancer. On this week’s podcast, you’ll meet a medical doctor turned cancer patient and natural foods advocate who dedicates the second chapter of his life toward beating cancer. Listen and learn: Wh...
Jan 11, 2023•45 min•Ep 550•Transcript available on Metacast When people brag about their 80-hour work weeks, I have to wonder, are they really working for 80 hours? Or are they starting, browsing social media, and then stopping and starting eight times in a row like me? While I often “work” for 10 or even 12 hours in a day, only a novelist would label what I’m actually doing as focused work. Many of us struggle with attention so profoundly that our only solution is to buffer the day with massive blocks of non-productive cloud-gazing time, so that 2-3 hou...
Jan 04, 2023•42 min•Ep 549•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to personal growth and development, most of us immediately think of productivity. How can we be more efficient and more effective with the limited time we have on this planet? On my best days, I consider myself moderately productive and yet, as months and years go by, the evidence of my productivity is undeniable. So what’s the secret? I have no idea, but our guest on this week’s podcast writes and lectures exclusively on this topic and has plenty of insights to share. Listen and l...
Dec 28, 2022•42 min•Ep 548•Transcript available on Metacast How would you feel if your spouse was incarcerated for 21 years? Would you stay or would you go? Would you even consider staying in the relationship? My guests on this week’s podcast are a couple who have managed to build and maintain a marriage, a family, and a life together despite seemingly insurmountable odds. Listen to learn: About the importance of family togetherness The truth about access to education in prison The problems in the USA penal system Why the corrections system rarely correc...
Dec 21, 2022•48 min•Ep 547•Transcript available on Metacast Your gastrointestinal tract contains around three pounds of microbes - some good and some bad. When your gut is healthy, the bad bugs are kept in check, and the good bugs serve as internal workhorses for digestion and short-chain fatty acid creation, they also release GABA and other neurotransmitters, and fend off pathogens. When things are out of balance, irritable bowel, leaky gut, gas, bloating, and disease can occur. Gastrointestinal problems affect as many as one in five people, so a happy ...
Dec 15, 2022•47 min•Ep 546•Transcript available on Metacast What if physical and emotional pain, depression, and even anxiety were all adaptive? Meaning these negative feelings are designed to protect us from harm and ensure our survival. Anxiety can be viewed as a call for preparedness, a stimulating feeling designed to help you avoid danger or prepare for important events. Once you’re able to understand why anxiety occurs, it’s possible to transform these feelings into productive action. My guest on this week’s podcast will show you how. Listen and lea...
Dec 07, 2022•34 min•Ep 545•Transcript available on Metacast Almost everyone is familiar with the concept of a heart-healthy diet, and most of us have heard of anti-cancer and other major disease-prevention diets. But what about eating foods to protect your brain? Neurodegenerative illnesses are the third biggest killer worldwide but we rarely focus on preventative care for the brain. My guest on this week’s podcast is a medical doctor and author whose work focuses on staving off and even preventing cognitive decline. Listen and learn: How to choose foods...
Nov 30, 2022•43 min•Ep 544•Transcript available on Metacast Tens of millions of people around the world are suffering linger, sometime debilitating symptoms from their past COVID infections. Symptoms range from POTs and hypocapnia to chronic fatigue and impaired lung function. As if that weren’t hard enough, since there is no historical precedents for this, most people are all alone in their healing journey. My guest on this week’s show nearly lost his life and has found his way back to health. Listen and learn: The importance of lean muscle while again ...
Nov 23, 2022•34 min•Ep 543•Transcript available on Metacast If you regularly sleep less than six hours a night, you are four times more likely to catch a cold than someone who sleeps longer. But you’re not alone. Around 30 percent of the population suffer from sleep problems of some type, which can affect everything from your mood and hormones, to your immunity and recovery time. This week we meet a psychiatrist and sleep expert who reveals the key to developing better sleep habits. Listen and learn: How fewer than six hours of sleep increases your likel...
Nov 16, 2022•42 min•Ep 542•Transcript available on Metacast Chronic pain can be debilitating, so we often look for ways to mask or medicate the symptoms. Unfortunately, the medical approach to pain management can sometimes lead to even worse problems. There is now a growing body of research showing the efficacy of mindfulness practices where you literally observe and accept your pain, rather than cover it up. It isn’t a panacea, but the clinical results are significant enough that mindfulness is now increasingly being integrated into hospital approaches....
Nov 09, 2022•38 min•Ep 541•Transcript available on Metacast What would 2023 look like if it became your healthiest year ever? What would you need to add to your life? What might you consider reducing or removing? And the hardest question of all: which lifestyle obstacles and people could stop this from becoming a reality? On this week’s podcast, personal trainer and fitness coach, Kathleen Trotter, reveals all about how to find your fitness. Listen and learn: Why movement is non-negotiable, but how you move is up to you Why self-love should be unconditio...
Nov 02, 2022•40 min•Ep 540•Transcript available on Metacast