House Call With Dr. Hyman

I was visiting Google one day, and I walked into a lunch area and saw everyone sitting on couches and at tables, all on their computers. I asked, “is this the silent lunch room?” and was surprised when I was told no. Far too often, I find myself on my phone or computer for most of my day – often missing the people and live events that are all around me. This is why it is important to do a complete “digital detox” – something I do at least a few times a year so that I can get back to just being. More and more studies have been coming out showing the link between too much Internet usage and screen time and mental and mood disorders (like ADHD, anxiety, depression etc.). In a recent study, people who reported excessive Internet use also reported social anxiety disorders, loneliness, social isolation and lower quality of life. The study also showed that Internet addiction was associated with reduced immune function. That’s right, too much Internet and screen time can actually make you sick! PS – My Eat Fat, Get Thin Challenge is not just about detoxing from junk foods, it’s about movement, journaling, breathing and more. Make the most of your online time by joining our 2017 Challenge and work with others to create new healthy habits together. Prep day starts on January 12th! Sign up now!

“Dr. Hyman, how do I know if I’m eating enough fat?” a reader recently asked me. This is an excellent question and one of my favorite subjects because I wholeheartedly believe eating the right amount and type of fat plays a crucial role in shaping health and wellbeing. Doctors, patients and readers are often completely confused about fat, clinging to myths and misinformation that prevents them from understanding the latest science to lose weight and achieve optimal health. You’re familiar with many of these myths: Fat makes us fat, fat contributes to heart disease, and fat leads to obesity. Saturated fat is bad, while vegetable oils are good. Simply put, these and other fat myths are big fat lies. Thankfully, the importance of fat is finally starting to catch on. How do you know if your cells are getting enough vital fat? I'll be covering signals your body actually sends you when it doesn’t get enough good fat. Never ignore the signs your body is giving you. If you’re still curious about whether you’re getting enough fat in your diet, take this quiz. If you’re not getting enough fat, or if you’re ready to kick-start your health in the new year, I highly recommend joining our Eat Fat, Get Thin January Challenge. Thousands of people all over the world have completed this program, and the results have been astonishing. If you’re tired of typical calorie-deprivation diets that don’t work, this is the program for you. Also check out my new Eat Fat, Get Thin Cookbook, filled with luscious, delicious, healthy recipes that deliver optimal amounts of healthy fat. Let’s spread the good news about healthy fats and permanently put outdated myths to bed!

Since the release of my book Eat Fat, Get Thin, I’ve noticed fierce debates on social media and other news sources about things like calorie counting, eating vs. avoiding fat and genetics. When it comes to overall health and weight loss, there’s an excess of advice out there. Unfortunately, most of it is terrible, misguided, outdated and scientifically disproven. This ubiquitously poor advice can create weight loss roadblocks and even damage your health. Here are four prevalent misguided myths that drive me nuts. Myth #1 – All Calories are Created Equal Myth #2 – Your Genetics Define You and Your Health Myth #3 – You Can Out-Exercise a Bad Diet Myth #4 – Fat Makes You Fat I’ve created a plan to reset your body and move toward your best self that incorporates movement, supplementation and above all, food and dietary fats . The Eat Fat, Get Thin program is a 21-day plan designed to support weight loss, maximize energy and mental clarity and kick start your health. Thousands of people all over the world have completed this program, and the results have been astonishing. If you’re tired of typical calorie-deprivation diets that don’t work, I highly recommend joining our Eat Fat, Get Thin January challenge. If you liked this information, please share it with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. And, help me continue to clear up nutrition and health confusion by submitting your questions to drhyman.com. Let’s spread real truth and inspire others!

I am so excited to share a recent interview that I did with Dr. Elizabeth Boham, my dear friend and long-time colleague here at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. She is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Albany Medical School and an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. She also has her undergraduate degree in nutritional biochemistry from Cornell University and her graduate degree and Registered Dietitian from Columbia University. Dr. Boham joined my team in 2007. What is so interesting about her journey is that she knows first-hand how difficult it can be to navigate through the health-care system. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 30 and discovered Functional Medicine and the importance of evaluating all systems in the body to discover the underlying cause for dysfunction. Here at our center, Dr. Boham and I take on some of the most difficult cases, and I am simply amazed by her dedication to creating health for her patients. She focuses on a variety of topics, including Women’s Health and Breast Cancer Prevention, insulin resistance, heart health, weight control and allergies. She also has a DVD called, Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer, which explores the Functional Medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well. Through her practice and lecturing, she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. In this interview, Dr. Boham and I talk about the importance of Functional Medicine, and she shares more about her own experience dealing with breast cancer, as well as her work with patients. For more information about working with Dr. Boham and our team at The UltraWellness Center, visit us here: www.ultrawellnesscenter.com

This is a time of year where many of us become overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by what’s still left to accomplish and preparing for family or extra holiday centric obligations. I’m sure many of you, like me, are also thinking about what we want to accomplish next year. My Handel coach gives me an excellent exercise each year that helps me focus, and get clear on what I want, and it never gets old. Simply put, it’s called dreaming. You might want to schedule a 30-minute consultation to see how this tool can help you design your life to be what you always wished it would be. Handel Group and I agree you should only take on 3 to 5 areas each year to focus on, but don’t worry when you improve one area, it always improves all the other ones, too. Everything is connected. Choosing to focus can be difficult but it’s crucial. In 2017, I’m going to focus on my family and strengthening and building those relationships, my finances (as in getting more organized about how I manage them) and my friendships by dedicating more time to nurturing them. Here is your guide for how to think about and write your dream.

“Dr. Hyman, I just started your Eat Fat, Get Thin plan, and I’m feeling great, but I have a lot of fear around my upcoming social schedule,” writes a Facebook reader. “How can I maintain my newfound health during the holidays? “ I get this all-to-common yet excellent question from folks as they confront their holiday eating fears. Eating well is not about perfection. We are human, so perfection is impossible. A better approach involves honoring your body and knowing what works best for you and just as importantly, what doesn’t work. If I go to a party and eat tortilla chips or sugar-laden treats, I’ll definitely feel the aftereffects. I’ll feel sick, tired and bloated. Obviously, that’s not how I want to spend my time or how I want to feel. Just like anything in life, preparation is key to staying lean and healthy during the holidays. I’ve found these 10 strategies help my patients stay on track in even the toughest social situations.

“Dr. Hyman, I’m so confused about what fats to cook with,” a reader recently wrote. “For so long I’ve been using vegetable oils because I heard they were best to cook with, and now I hear that we can cook with butter or coconut oil.” I completely understand your confusion, especially with rampant misinformation about fats and nutrition in general. For instance, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends adults get no more than five percent of their calories from saturated fat, urging people to use vegetable oils instead. They also advise people to eat at least five to 10 percent of their calories from polyunsaturated fat (PUFAs). Unlike saturated fat, the AHA rationalizes the linoleic acid in PUFAs lower LDL cholesterol levels. As a result of this and other poor nutrition advice, the average intake of this omega-6 fatty acid has risen sharply: Americans consume at least twice the amount of linoleic acid today than they did in the 1960s. Increased consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils, which are highly inflammatory to the body and unstable, has subsequently increased inflammatory diseases. Over-consuming omega-6 fats and under-consuming omega-3 fats increases numerous health issues including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, pre-diabetes, IBS, arthritis, asthma, cancer and autoimmune diseases. That’s because omega-6 fats fuel your body’s inflammatory pathways and counteract the benefits and availability of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, creating even more inflammation. These ubiquitous omega-6 fats like vegetable oils (soybean, safflower, sunflower, and canola oils) undo any health benefits from consuming omega-3 fats. This misguided dietary advice to swap traditional omega-3-rich fats for inflammatory omega-6 fats, although it may have begun with good intent, has yielded disastrous results. Consuming too many omega-6 fats also increases mental illness, suicide and homicide. In fact, studies show a connection of mental health with inflammation in the brain. We need to eliminate these highly processed vegetable oils that are so prevalent in the standard American diet. Instead, I suggest using more plant-based and animal-stable fats such as butter, coconut oil and even lard.

The First Step to Your Best Health: A Kitchen Makeover by Mark Hyman

When we decided to put together another Fat Summit, I knew that I wanted my friend Dr. Carrie Diulus to co-host with me. I’ve only known her for a year, but it feels like I’ve known her forever. Dr. Diulus is the medical director of an amazing center in Ohio called the Crystal Clinic Spine Wellness Center. She is one of the only female board certified orthopedic spine surgeons in the country, and one of the only surgeons I have met who encourages people to choose alternatives to surgery when they can. When the decision is made to pursue surgery, she uses a Functional Medicine approach to help people prepare for and heal from the procedure. That’s the type of surgeon I want in my court! You probably remember from the first Fat Summit that Dr. Diulus is dealing with type 1 diabetes; so, she knows a lot about fat, diet and carbs. As a special sneak preview, I wanted to share with you our new interview from The Fat Summit 2. In this early expert talk with Dr. Diulus, you will learn: - Types of diabetes and the differences of and treatments for each - What a diabetic really should be eating - The importance of ketones If you want to see the rest of our interviews, be sure to register now for the Fat Summit 2. But hurry – the Summit begins on Monday, November 7th!

We want the facts! We want an unbiased analysis of research and we want to know what works. That is exactly why I had to interview my friend and colleague Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac for my original Fat Summit. He is a globally recognized leader in the fields of ancestral health, Paleo nutrition and Functional and Integrative Medicine. Chris in an investigator and pioneer in his field. In the first Fat Summit, Chris and I got the chance to talk about personalized medicine, cholesterol, Paleo diets, vegan diets and myths around heart disease and fat. You can read the transcript here. I wanted to dig into the research and science around meat consumption, so I invited Chris back for our upcoming Fat Summit 2: Separating Even More Fat from Fiction. We recently talked about meat and ended up discussing into how science is often for sale and how we should read all studies with a grain of salt. We also had the chance to dig deeper into fat, heart health and much more. My new interviews with Chris and over 30 other experts will air during Fat Summit 2 – November 7 to 14. In the meantime, check out our first interview. Hope you enjoy it!

Is butter back? What is the deal with coffee? What exactly is biohacking? Does calorie counting actually work? What fats should we eat? Which fats are harmful? My friend Dave Asprey and I had the chance to sit down this past February, during our first Fat Summit, to answer these important questions. Dave is the founder of Bulletproof and the author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Bulletproof Diet. He is also the master of optimizing the body and the brain. Our conversation was fascinating, to say the least. After the first Fat Summit, the New York Times released an article discussing the idea of a “cursed” metabolism. I knew that I wanted to sit down again with Dave to talk about this because he is living proof that you CAN reset your metabolism. There are so many myths out there about metabolism, calorie counting, what we should eat, what to stay away from, how best to exercise and the list goes on and on. So I brought Dave and over 30 other experts together again for The Fat Summit 2: Separating Even More Fat From Fiction so we could dive deeper into these vital subjects. The Fat Summit 2 goes live on Monday, November 7th.

Many of you asked me how I gave up being a nice-aholic, which I talked about in a previous blog titled Is your Kindness Killing You? If you’ve been following my writing, then you know I had a bad habit of not saying what I really thought in some important relationships and then ended up suffering the consequences. I had the habit of getting into conflicts or disappointments with people and then complaining to my friends or coach about it, while not saying what I really wanted to the source of my frustration – all of which lead me to being increasingly unhappy about the whole situation! I used to have a weird experience of feeling right or justified about complaining. But this approach really took me far away from dealing with the real situation in front of me. That’s until I learned what I could do about it. All the coaches on my coaches team – the Handel Group – teach this step by step process and help you work through your most difficult relationships with you. If you are interested in this kind of support, you can get a free 30-minute consultation on how the Handel Method works and find out what coaching program could be right for you.

The way you eat, how much you exercise, how you manage stress and your exposure to environmental toxins all contribute to things like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and of course, heart disease. The current way doctors treat heart disease is misguided because they treat the risk factors not the causes. To think we can treat heart disease by lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure and lowering blood sugar with medication alone is like mopping up the floor while we leave the faucet running as the sink overflows. Instead, we need to ask what is causing the high blood pressure, high blood sugar or abnormal cholesterol in the first place. Spoiler alert: These are not medication deficiencies! We treat these problems with medication, but studies have increasingly shown that treating these risk factors has very little benefit if any at all. Research shows changing your lifestyle can be a more powerful intervention to prevent heart disease than any medication. In February of this year, I released The Fat Summit and was so honored to interview more than 30 leading health experts about dietary fat, sugar, chronic disease and the truth about heart disease. One of those experts was Dr. Aseem Malhotra who is truly a leading thinker in cardiology and has challenged the status quo around fat, calories and conventional wisdom around statin use. During our interview, Dr. Malhotra and I got a chance to talk about why heart disease is on the rise; the benefits of a higher fat, lower carb diet; and much more. It was such a fascinating discussion, I decided to re-share Part 1 today to keep the conversation going. I am excited to announce that the conversation on fat is just beginning! Dr. Malhotra and 30+ other experts have come together again to continue our discussion of the fat we eat, the fat on our bodies, chronic disease, and definitely a lot more about heart health. I hope you enjoy Part 1 of my conversation with Dr. Malhotra, and to see Part 2 (plus more interviews), sign up for The Fat Summit 2: Separating Even More Fat From Fiction. It starts November 7th, and I hope to see you there!

I once had a fear of fat while growing up. I subscribed to the antiquated “all calories are the same” myth, a mentality that demonizes fat. After all, eating fat makes you fat, right? End of story. From a caloric perspective, that makes sense. Dietary fat contains nine calories per gram, versus the four calories per gram for carbs and protein. If you eat less fat, you will eat fewer calories, and you will lose weight – easy and done, right? Unfortunately, that theory doesn’t work for many reasons. The theory that all calories have the same impact on your weight and metabolism remains one of the most persistent nutrition myths that keep us fat and sick. Earlier this year, I brought together some of my favorite doctors, scientists, researchers and health experts to discuss the idea that food is information and that the information in fat is actually beneficial for our health, despite what we’ve been told for decades. My goals for the original Fat Summit were to clear up the confusion around this misunderstood nutrient and prove that it has a place in our diets. I was really lucky to have Dr. Christiane Northrup join the Fat Summit and share her expertise on women’s health, hormonal health, cholesterol and the idea that food is information and that food is medicine. It was such a great interview that I wanted to share it with you, and use this opportunity to announce that the conversation about fat is just beginning! Creating The Fat Summit was one of the highlights of my career! I enjoyed delving into this subject with all of the experts and found that we were only scratching the surface. So, I decided to continue the conversation and launch The Fat Summit 2: Separating Even More Fat from Fiction. Check out my talk with Christiane from the first Fat Summit, and if you find it as compelling as I do, then you will for sure want to hear more about what it takes to get healthy and stay healthy. Don’t miss out – continue to hear these amazing conversations with world-renowned experts by registering for the Fat Summit 2.

I am so excited to announce to that we are launching The Fat Summit 2: Separating Even More Fat from Fiction this coming November. During the first Fat Summit, we brought together physicians, health experts, researchers, journalists and scientists to tell us the truth about what makes us sick and fat, and guess what? It’s not the fat that is the culprit! We dove deep into subjects like cholesterol, brain health, heart disease, hormones and so much more, but the conversation was only just beginning, which is why we decided to bring you The Fat Summit 2. We are bringing back some of our favorite experts and introducing some new ones, too. Before we launch this new summit, we want to take you back to some of the highlights from the original summit. So, over the next five weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the amazing conversations we had to give you the skinny on fat. This week, I’m sharing one of my favorite interviews with Dr. David Ludwig. For 20 years, Dr. Ludwig has conducted basic and clinical research into novel dietary approaches for obesity, diabetes and heart disease. And, he was one of the greatest sources of inspiration for my book, Eat Fat, Get Thin. Let’s keep this conversation about fat going. Do you have any questions or comments about dietary fat? Comment on my Facebook page. Be sure to sign up for the Fat Summit 2 here. It all starts on Monday, November 7th!