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The Link Between Stomach Acid and Optimal Health
Updated 10/22/2019 Background The focus of my clinical practice and work is on cardiometabolic disorders (obesity, diabetes, cholesterol disorders, heart disease, insulin resistance, etc.), so why am I talking about acidity and digestion in this post? As I started seeing patients with cardiometabolic disorders, I noticed that many of them happened to have problems with digestion as well. Symptoms like acidity, bloating, gas, constipation and/or diarrhea. I didn’t make the connection initially, but over the years I’ve noticed that as we worked towards reversing insulin resistance through natural lifestyle changes, digestive symptoms also resolved. I now fully acknowledge the connection between the digestive system, popularly referred to as “gut health,” and overall health. In fact, I often refer to the co-existence of gut symptoms and cardiac risk as “cardiodigestive disorders” or CDD to remind me of this intimate link. Recall how we’ve discussed multiple times how inflammation is the root…
Read MorePrescription Food Series Debut: Introducing “Paleo Naan”
Background Before I talk about the highly anticipated Paleo Naan, let me give you a little background since this is the first post of my new prescription food series. As a physician, I’ve spent a large part of my career writing prescriptions for drugs. Unfortunately that was the primary weapon and skill I was equipped with during medical training. I spent only a few weeks out of four years of medical school learning about nutrition and most of that was nutrition biochemistry rather than effective strategies to help patients eat healthier. Residency training in internal medicine made me very comfortable taking care of the sickest of the sick. I could insert a tube into your trachea (windpipe) and keep you alive on a ventilator or prescribe medications to fix your numbers, but I didn’t know how to fix you. I couldn’t effectively get patients to improve body composition, reduce stress,…
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