The Doctor's Farmacy With Mark Hyman, M.d.

The ketogenic diet has gained a lot of popularity in the past couple of years. If you’re not quite sure what it is, why it could be beneficial, or you’re well-acquainted with it and just want to learn more, this episode is for you. The ketogenic diet, or keto as it’s called, is a high-fat low carbohydrate diet. While some people take this to mean loads of conventionally raised meat and dairy, the true (and beneficial version) means lots of beneficial fats from things like avocados, nuts and seeds, and coconut; high-quality protein from clean sources like grass-fed meat and pasture-raised eggs; and plenty of non-starchy vegetables.  To hash out more of the details about keto and how it can support good health, I was excited to talk with my friend and one of the leading voices in the Paleo/Primal and keto movements, Mark Sisson. Mark is the founder of the popular daily health blog, Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Rese

Only 12% of us in the US are metabolically healthy—it’s pretty alarming when the healthy population is the minority. And in the age of COVID-19, it’s important to recognize that those with a chronic disease are at an exponentially higher risk of hospitalization than someone who is metabolically healthy. If we as a population were healthier (think less obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc.), the evidence supports that we’d be faring much better throughout this pandemic. Of course, a major driver of chronic diseases and the risks they create is our food system. We can’t expect to be a resilient population if we aren’t feeding our bodies real food with real nutrients we can use to function optimally.  To dig into this topic further, I was excited to sit down with Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian on this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy. Dr. Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts M

Many of us wonder why we keep getting sick and repeatedly suffer from recurrent infections—whether it be sinus infections, ear infections, urinary tract infections, cold and flu, or a range of other infections. While conventional medicine typically treats these infections with antibiotics, Functional Medicine digs deeper to determine the cause of the infection and what can be done to eliminate it. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to breaking the cycle of recurrent infections and how to make ourselves more immune resilient.  Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to m

Food is political, whether we like it or not.   From the subsidies used to grow the crops that produce our massive amounts of ultra-processed foods, to school lunches, to the meals being served on our own dinner tables and even in the White House, the state of our food system is impacted by policy on an incredible scale. My guest on today’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy has played a very positive role in trying to impact those policies for the better to make America healthier as a whole. Sam Kass is the former Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition in the Obama administration. After cooking for the Obamas in Chicago for two years, Sam joined the White House kitchen staff in 2009. During his White House tenure, he took on several additional roles including Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and Senior White House Policy Advisor for Nutrition. As one of the First Lady’s longest-serving advisors, he helped the First Lady create the first major vegetable garden at the White Ho

While we can’t be sure what’s in store for us with the future of COVID-19, we can try to learn from the past to tackle this situation in the smartest way possible. That means looking at previous infectious disease epidemics and understanding zoonotic diseases like this one, that are passed from animals to humans, and how they’re different from the other pandemic diseases we’ve been able to eradicate.  I was excited to connect with Dr. Steven Gordon to dig into these topics deeper, today on The Doctor’s Farmacy. Dr. Gordon is the Chairman of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Professor of Medicine at the Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western University. His clinical interests include infective endocarditis including cardiac electronic implantable device infections as well as opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients. He is a Fellow in the American College of Internal Medicine and a Member of the Infectious Disease Society of America. Dr. Gordon is the

Functional Medicine is all about looking at the way our systems function together, rather than focusing on one part of the body at a time. The steps you take to support whole-body health work in the same way. Diet, exercise, stress reduction—they simultaneously affect more than just one aspect of your health—and new research has revealed that choices around these things can have major impacts on our sleep, and how that cycles back to support overall optimal health. In this episode I sit down with Dr. Todd LePine to discuss why so many of us experience issues related to our sleep and what we can do about it. Dr. LePine graduated from Dartmouth Medical School and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, specializing in Integrative Functional Medicine. He is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Prior to joining The UltraWellness Center, he worked as a physician at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, for 10 years. Dr. LePine’s focus at The UltraWellness Center is to help his patients achieve optima

When’s the last time you remembered a new phone number? This used to be the norm, but now most of us rely on our digital devices for everything from phone numbers to directions and even basic math. This might feel harmless but it’s actually doing our brains a disservice. We’re living in an age of digital dementia, because we don’t have to rely on our brains for the memorization and navigation we used to. But it doesn’t have to be that way—we can retrain ourselves to learn faster, retain information better, and really maximize our time spent learning. The secret is meta-learning, or the science of learning how to learn.  There’s no better person to dive into this topic than Jim Kiwk, my guest today on The Doctor’s Farmacy. Jim is the founder of Kwik Learning and a widely recognized world expert in speed-reading, memory improvement, brain performance, and accelerated learning. For over two decades he has served as the brain coach to many of the world’s leading C-suite executives and celebrities. After a childho

As we continue to learn more about COVID-19, we continue to see a pattern in those more at risk. People who aren’t metabolically healthy (think obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension) are much more likely to experience severe complications if they are to get the virus. And to put that in perspective, only 1 in 8 Americans are considered metabolically healthy. That means a lot of us are at risk during this already alarming time. We can start changing that today, though, and create a newfound health baseline while creating a greater level of resilience when it comes to chronic disease and future situations like this.  The US isn’t the only place dealing with an epidemic of obesity and other metabolic diseases. The UK and other parts of the world are also struggling, thanks to the spread of the ultra-processed food and a sedentary lifestyle. On this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m joined by Dr. Aseem Malhotra to talk about the impact COVID-19 is having on the UK, the risks that m

The body and brain are one interconnected system, which means you can’t treat anxiety effectively by using only drugs or psychotherapy. You need to treat the body, because the body and brain are one interconnected system. Unfortunately, conventional medicine plays the name and blame game. It says, you are “anxious;” you need an “anti-anxiety” medication. But saying you are anxious explains nothing about why you have anxiety. Functional Medicine takes a different approach. By taking a detailed history and personalized approach, it seeks to get to the root of the issue.   In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with his colleague, Dr. George Papanicolaou, to discuss how they treat patients suffering with anxiety.  George Papanicolaou is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is Board Certified in Family Medicine from Abington Memorial Hospital. He is also an Institute for Functional Medicine Practitioner. Upon graduation from his residency he joined the Indian Health Service. He worked

When we think about health, we usually think about diet and exercise. We think about the things we are doing for our physical body to promote wellness. But what about the things we can’t see? Relationships are a big one. For example. committing just ten to fifteen minutes a day to talking to someone we love is a powerful way to keep ourselves happy and connected, especially now during this time of coronavirus quarantine. Today on The Doctor’s Farmacy, I talk with Dr. Vivek Murthy about nurturing greater connection and what it means for our health.  Dr. Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States between 2014-2017. As the Vice Admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, he commanded a uniformed service of 6,600 public health officers globally. During his tenure, Dr. Murthy launched the TurnTheTide campaign, catalyzing a movement among health professionals to address the nation’s opioid crisis. He also issued the first Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health, ca

One in three children born today will develop type 2 diabetes and four out of ten will be overweight. There’s a fundamental problem happening around our country when it comes to how we feed our kids and the lifelong health risks they face as a result. When we think about fixing the problem, it makes sense to look at our schools. In Boston, for example, 30,000 children a day rely on the school food system for 2 to 3 meals a day. That gives the educational system a lot of power to change the nutritional profile of our children’s diets with real food, but unfortunately, many districts are stuck relying on packaged and processed options. Certain groups are making some amazing positive changes, though, by installing real school kitchens that serve real food. My friend Jill Shah, who joined me for this episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, has led that fight in the Boston public school system with incredible results. Jill Shah is the President of the Shah Family Foundation, which supports innovative and transformative w

Mounting research shows that there is no magic bullet to treat heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, allergies, digestive disorders, headaches, fatigue, or any of the myriad problems we suffer from in the 21st century. But increasing evidence also shows us something else. It shows that food is the most powerful “drug” we have not just to prevent, but also treat, cure, and reverse most chronic illnesses. Food contains information that speaks to our genes, not just calories for energy. What you eat programs your body with messages of health or illness. We are learning from research in the field of nutrigenomics, that food “talks” to our DNA switching on or off genes that lead to health or disease.  In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with Maggie Ward about the nutrition-focused appointments she conducts at The UltraWellness Center, and the power of treating people with food. Maggie Ward, MS, RD, LDN, is the Nutrition Director at The UltraWellness Center. Maggie holds a masters degr

Energy is such a major piece to overall wellness—we don’t feel very motivated to practice self-care and pursue the things we love if we simply don’t have the energy. So what does it really look like to have great energy, and what can we do in our own lives to create more of it? Today’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy is the perfect person to answer that. Ben Greenfield is a human performance consultant, speaker, and New York Times bestselling author of 13 books, including the wildly popular titles, Beyond Training and Boundless. A former collegiate tennis, water polo, and volleyball player, as well as a bodybuilder, 13-time Ironman triathlete, and professional obstacle course racer, Ben has been voted by the NSCA as America’s top Personal Trainer and by Greatist as one of the top 100 Most Influential People In Health and Fitness. Ben hosts the highly popular fitness, nutrition, and wellness website bengreenfieldfitness.com, a site with over a million monthly visitors, featuring articles, podcasts, and product r

People have never been more curious about strengthening the immune system than they are right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has got us all thinking seriously about our health and what it means to have immune strength, now and in the future. To get the most out of this trying time, we need to be open to looking at our health in ways we haven’t before. My guest today on The Doctor’s Farmacy, Dr. Jeffrey Bland, is a pro at that, and for this reason and so many others he is considered the father of Functional Medicine. Dr. Bland has been an internationally recognized leader in the nutritional medicine field for over 35 years. He’s authored five books on nutritional medicine for the healthcare professional and six books on nutrition and health. With his wife, Susan, Dr. Bland founded The Institute for Functional Medicine in 1991, a nonprofit organization focused on educating healthcare practitioners on effective approaches to treating and preventing chronic disease by getting to the root cause.  Dr. Bland has always

We’ve all heard the fiendishly simple and completely untrue colloquialism that to lose weight you just have to eat less and exercise more. Or that it’s all about willpower and that it’s the individual’s fault if they are fat. Not only are these ideas completely unsupported by the scientific literature, but they also lead to a blame-the-victim mentality that tells people who are struggling with their weight, in a not-so-subtle way, that if they only tried harder they would lose weight. There is only one problem with this point of view: It’s just not true. What makes us thin, fat, or somewhere in between does indeed have something to do with how much we eat and exercise. But the oversimplification stops there. Complex forces that govern our survival control our weight and metabolism. In fact, there is no one simple reason why an individual may have trouble with his or her weight. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to weight gain and weigh

We’re all going through this era of coronavirus—separately but together. I feel like humanity is taking one big existential breath; it’s a pause for us all to think about our previous normal lives, our currently abnormal lives, and how we want to reinvent life when this whole thing is over. And I know many of us have become confused by the different news outlets sharing different information. When it comes to deciding who is a reliable source, I know Katie Couric is always someone I can trust. I’m honored to have her chat with me for this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy.  Katie is an award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author and a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer. Since its launch in 2008, Stand Up To Cancer has raised more than $600 million to support cutting-edge collaborative science and its research has contributed to six new FDA approved therapies. In 2017, she founded Katie Couric Media, which has developed a number of media projects, including a daily newsletter, a podcast, and

There are so many questions about how coronavirus can impact our health, and rightfully so. This novel virus has completely changed the way we function as a society and brought about a feeling of uncertainty most of us haven’t ever experienced. But we’re in this together. There is, of course, a wide range of common concerns—from how to protect ourselves and families to what kinds of treatment options exist—but also many new conversations popping up around what supplements we can safely trust for immune strength, if it’s safe to go outdoors, how the virus attaches to surfaces, and so much more.  Last week I was lucky enough to sit down with Dr. Patrick Hanaway for a video-call to talk about these important questions from a Functional Medicine perspective. Dr. Hanaway is the Senior Advisor to the Institute for Functional Medicine, their COVID-19 Task Force Coordinator, and Co-Chair of the IFM Expert Advisory Board. In case you missed it, we’re sharing that as the latest episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy. *For con

Hormone imbalances are epidemic these days. For example, symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), like mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, fluid retention, bloating, breast tenderness, sugar cravings, headaches, and sleep disturbances, affect 75 percent of women. But just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you have to live with these symptoms.  The real fact is that suffering related to menstrual cycles is unnecessary. You might never know this from conventional medicine, which seems to subscribe to the idea that women are destined to suffer throughout their reproductive life and beyond. However, there are actually many things you can do to fix hormonal imbalances.  In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to treating hormonal imbalances in women.  Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands

We’re all trying to make sense of the new world order. And while my wife and I stay at home and navigate these unusual times, we find routine and practice to be the core of our wellbeing. We’re meditating every morning, going for walks in the woods, and taking afternoon work breaks to check-in and find time to connect. These seemingly simple actions have become the parts of our day that keep us grounded and optimistic, so we actually even schedule them into our calendars.  One of my favorite people to talk to about the benefits of spiritual and wellness practices is Gabrielle Bernstein. I was so happy to connect with her over a video-call for this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy. Gabby is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Universe Has Your Back and has written six additional bestsellers, including Super Attractor which launched in September 2019. She was featured on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday as a “next-generation thought leader” and The Oprah Winfrey Network chose Gabrielle to be part of

Multiple times a day, even multiple times an hour, we’re hearing new information about COVID-19. Some of the most common questions I’ve received have to do with testing. We had our first case of novel coronavirus the same day South Korea had its first case. Yet they are much further ahead of us when it comes to testing, something that has helped them quickly control the virus in a way we haven’t been able to do in the US. They also rapidly took on measures like quarantining and tracing the transmission of the virus. Of course, there are so many different components that go into successful testing and quelling a pandemic of this size. Today on The Doctor’s Farmacy, I hope to shed some light on those with my guest Dr. Steven Kleiboeker. Throughout our conversation, we cover who should be tested, when, and how, and what kinds of tests are currently available or soon will be. He is the Vice President of Research and Development for Viracor, and is responsible for the scientific direction and oversight of the comp