Get Dr La Puma's Healthy Bites & Weekly Wows in your inbox to help you feel your best inside and out. Insights, healthy recipes and recommended household, culinary, literary, botanical and natural products to make your life easier, healthier and more fun.
This is the 40 minute invited “The Science of Nature as Medicine”, guest lecture (zoom video) to Harvard’s “Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine” course I taught in January 2020, with 20 minutes of questions. Many of the references for the studies I cite can be found in [...]
Now that it’s November, the time of the year is swiftly approaching that involves eating, eating… and more eating. I love a good holiday meal as much as the next guy, but the temptation to over indulge (turkey! stuffing! potatoes! pie! okay, one more piece of pie…) can leave [...]
It’s been fascinating to track how the coronavirus pandemic has changed our grocery shopping and cooking habits. One big change I’ve noticed is more and more people buying hardier long-lasting veggies that do well in a pantry, like potatoes and onions. But another excellent pantry [...]
Digestive complaints are among the most common health concerns, and IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) is one of the most commonly diagnosed causes. If you’re experiencing distress, and you’ve determined after my previous article on IBS that you want to do something to mitigate your [...]
When the smooth rhythm of the muscles of the digestive tract is disrupted—either moving too quickly or too slowly—we experience digestive distress. For some of us, this distress can be frequent and painful, creating a major disruption in our life and in our lifestyle. Several health conditions [...]
Among the most nutritious of berries, Black Currants (Ribes nigra) were once a forbidden fruit in the United States. The berries were susceptible to hosting a fungus that killed white pine trees and were banned for that reason. Fortunately, pines have made a comeback—and as the ban on black [...]
Finally, it’s everyone’s favorite holiday of the year: National Spinach Day! Spinach has gotten a bad rap for a long time, although it’s made a comeback recently as more and more people espouse this superfood’s many health benefits. So what’s the real story on [...]
We all have a connection with nature and living things… Explore 10 ways nature can help you heal with Dr John La [...]
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is the golden-orange spice that gives curried foods pizzazz. In Traditional Chinese and Indian Medicine, turmeric is used to treat allergies, digestive ailments, and pain. The active chemical component of turmeric is curcumin, known for its anti-inflammatory properties. [...]
Oh my aching back! Most of us will say this several times over the course of our lifetime. Sometimes it’s a chronic issue, a deep nagging ache that impacts daily activities. Other times, it’s sudden and acute and amazingly painful, the result of a “wrong move” from lifting a [...]