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What is the microbiome? The human body is home to over 100 trillion microorganisms, the majority of which are found in the gastrointestinal tract–also know as the “gut.” Taken as a whole, this community of microorganisms, their genes, and the functions they encode are referred to as [...]
Ah, springtime! We welcome the pleasant weather, the scent of new blossoms, and opening our windows to the rush of fresh air. But along with that, we invite in pollen, grass, mold, and spores. For those who are allergic, our bodies launch a major immune response designed to flush [...]
At this point in your self-isolation journey, you might have tried a number of new things: home-gardening, regrowing veggies from scraps, making your own bread from scratch. But have you tried canning yet? Canning is a wonderful way to provide your family with nutritious food from your garden all [...]
Nobody likes social distancing, but one of my personal favorite “silver linings” to this moment in time is how many people are turning towards home gardening and how to make your new home garden organic. Starting a home garden is great for so many reasons—it’s good for your [...]
A favorite herb in many types of cooking, basil—particularly Italian sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum)—is a nutritionally potent herb, beneficial for health and home. Include basil in your diet, home medicine kit, and your garden (easy to grow: check out these two organic seedlings, shipped to you [...]
This Thursday, April 16th, is National Stress Awareness Day. A lot of us might be more aware of our stress than ever these days. We’ve got more stressors—and more time to ruminate on them. But as you probably know, ruminating endlessly on your stress is a surefire way to feel worse, [...]
During times of high stress, especially physical stress, the body is in danger of accumulating metabolic build-up. Add to this all the toxins that get into the body through soil and water, the food supply, the air we breathe, and medications we take, and you’ve got a perfect storm [...]
The evidence couldn’t be clearer: Exercise is the best prescription for a healthy life. Exercise aids in the prevention of chronic disease, enhances brain and nervous system function, and helps us manage stress at every age. It’s so potent for our well-being that many medical [...]
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 [...]
There are dozens of reason why you’d want to keep a diet diary. Whether you need to monitor eating habits to manage a health condition or because you want to lose weight, keeping a diet diary is a powerful tool for gaining insight about what, when, and why you [...]