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Does Nicotine Raise Blood Pressure? Explore The Link, Prevention Strategies, and More
Does smoking cause high blood pressure? In the short term, yes. Every time you smoke, it causes a temporary increase in blood pressure (1). Blood pressure increases when blood has difficulty traveling through the blood vessels. In simple terms, it’s like you’re in a tunnel with a lot of people, and you need to make […]
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Back Pain After Sleep: Causes, Chiropractic Care, and Other Remedies
Back hurts after sleeping: Common causes Poor sleep habits and an unsupportive sleep environment are common culprits behind back pain after sleep (5, 6). However, underlying medical conditions like arthritis, disc herniation, and fibromyalgia can contribute to the condition. Here’s a look at the common causes. Poor sleeping position Sleeping on your stomach can force […]
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Are There Cancer Killing Foods? Healthy Fats Can Help
What are healthy fats? Healthy fats are essential fatty acids that are vital to many bodily functions. Essential fatty acids fall into two categories: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs): MUFAs help lower bad cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke (6). These fats also provide essential building blocks for your body’s […]
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Can Type 1 Diabetes Be Cured? Discover Latest Breakthrough
Type 1 diabetes average life expectancy Before the introduction of insulin therapy in 1922, T1D was a fatal diagnosis. Still today, experts say that without insulin therapy, individuals with T1D have a lifespan of days to weeks, depending on the severity of complications (3). With insulin, however, people are living longer with T1D now than […]
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How To Stop Back Spasms With Core Stability Exercises and More
What causes muscle spasms in the back? Various factors, such as muscle strain, stress, injuries, or medical conditions, cause back muscle spasms. Let’s examine the symptoms and causes of back muscle spasms in detail. Symptoms of back muscle spasm Back spasms cause great discomfort. This is why it’s important to recognize their symptoms. If you’re […]
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Half the World Eats Rice Toxins Daily That Damage Kidneys
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See How Spinach Can Damage Your Kidneys
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Avoid These 7 Plant-Based Foods That Can Damage Your Kidneys
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These 7 Daily Habits Can Help Lower Your Creatinine Levels | Improve Kidney Health
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9 Skin Signs That May Indicate Your Kidneys Are Damaged
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Surprise! Drinking Water Wrongly Can Damage Your Kidneys
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9 Fruits to Lower Creatinine Levels and Improve Kidney Health
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Top 9 Drinks To Help Stop Proteinuria and Heal Your Kidneys
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Urinating Every 2 Hours? 11 Reasons Why (Plus Home Remedies)
Advisory Board
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Ari Magill, MD
Neurology American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry (ABPN) board-certified in Neurology, Certification as a functional medicine health coach through the functional medicine coaching academy (FMCA)Ari Magill, M.D. is a board-certified neurologist who received his M.D. from UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX and completed a neurology residency at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ and a fellowship in movement disorders at the University of Colorado in Aurora, CO. He enjoys medical writing and has a special interest in cognitive, behavioral, and memory disorders and functional medicine health coaching. He is passionate about advancing dementia treatment through neuroscience research and aggressive lifestyle change aided by judicious use of supplements. Dr. Magill is an avid bicycle rider, a film enthusiast, and enjoys playing basketball in his free time. In the past, Dr. Magill worked as a neurohospitalist at Northwest Medical Center in Tucson, AZ and worked as a traumatic brain injury (TBI) exam neurologist, conducting independent TBI exams for disability assessment on veterans and active-duty military personnel. He has also worked as a physician clinical research investigator for Synexus, Cognitive Clinical Trials, and the IMA Group. Dr. Magill writes and edits on a variety of topics, including acute and chronic disease, health maintenance, and preventive care, with a focus on neurologic disease and mental health. He has been a freelance medical writer since 2016.
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Chain-Ruei Huang, RD
Nutritionist Eating-related behavior therapy, preventative nutrition, public health nutritionChian-Ruei Huang is a compassionate and dedicated Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a wealth of experience in eating-related behavior therapy, preventative nutrition, public health nutrition, and disease nutrition. As a strong believer in the power of food and its role in the human life cycle, Chian-Ruei understands the importance of nurturing a healthy relationship with food and promoting well-being at every stage of life. Driven by her passion for holistic health, Chian-Ruei has integrated her yoga training into her clinical nutrition counseling, fostering greater understanding, communication, and empathy with her patients. This transformative practice has allowed her to connect more deeply with her patients, guiding them on their journeys towards healthier lifestyles. Throughout her career, Chian-Ruei has worked in various roles such as weight-loss nutritionist, long term care dietician, and nutrition advisor for multiple health-related brands. Her diverse experiences have provided her with the skills and knowledge needed to address a wide range of nutritional issues and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams effectively. In addition to her work as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Chian-Ruei is dedicated to sharing her expertise and perspective through media channels, aiming to benefit a broader audience and inspire others to embrace the essence of life through food and yoga. With her unwavering passion for holistic health and commitment to improving lives, Chian-Ruei Huang is an advocate for the integration of nutrition and wellness in everyday life.
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Preet Pal Singh Bhinder, MD
MD and FID (Fellowship in Diabetes, Royal Liverpool Academy) Diabetes SpecialistPreet Pal Singh Bhinder is a physician (M.D. Medicine) with specialization in diabetes (Fellowship in diabetes, Royal Liverpool Academy). He has a particular interest in metabolic disorders.
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Christopher Gardner, PhD
Professor (Research), Medicine - Stanford Prevention Research Center NutritionFor the past 20 years most of my research has been focused on investigating the potential health benefits of various dietary components or food patterns, which have been explored in the context of randomized controlled trials in free-living adult populations. Some of the interventions have involved vegetarian diets, soy foods and soy food components, garlic, omega-3 fats/fish oil/flax oil, antioxidants, Ginkgo biloba, and popular weight loss diets. These trials have ranged in duration from 8 weeks to a year, with study outcomes that have included weight, blood lipids and lipoproteins, inflammatory markers, glucose, insulin, blood pressure and body composition. Most of these trials have been NIH-funded. The most recent of these was an NIH funded weight loss diet study - DIETFITS (Diet Intervention Examining The Factors Interacting with Treatment Success) that involved randomizing 609 generally healthy, overweight/obese adults for one year to either a Healthy Low-Fat or a Healthy Low-Carb diet. The main findings were published in JAMA in 2018, and many secondary and exploratory analyses are in progress testing and generating follow-up hypotheses. In the past few years the long-term interests of my research group have shifted to include two additional areas of inquiry. One of these is Stealth Nutrition. The central hypothesis driving this is that in order for more effective and impactful dietary improvements to be realized, public health professionals need to consider adding non-health related approaches to their strategies toolbox. Examples would be the connections between food and 1) global warming and climate change, 2) animal rights and welfare, and 3) human labor abuses (e.g., slaughterhouses, agriculture fields, fast food restaurants). An example of my ongoing research in this area is a summer Food and Farm Camp run in collaboration with the Santa Clara Unified School District since 2011. Every year ~125 kids between the ages of 5-14 years come for 1-week summer camp sessions led by Stanford undergraduates and an Education Director to tend, harvest, chop, cook, and eat vegetables...and play because it is summer camp! The objective is to study the factors influencing the behaviors and preferences that lead to maximizing vegetable consumption in kids. A second area of interest and inquiry is institutional food. Universities, worksites, hospitals, and schools order and serve a lot of food, every day. If the choices offered are healthier, the consumption behaviors will be healthier. A key factor to success in institutional food is to make the food options "unapologetically delicious" a term I borrow from Greg Drescher, a colleague and friend at the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA). Chefs are trained to make great tasting food, and chefs in institutional food settings can be part of the solution to improving eating behaviors. In 2015 I helped to initiate a Stanford-CIA collaboration that now involves dozens of universities that have agreed to collectively use their dining halls as living laboratories to study ways to maximize the synergy of taste, health and environmental sustainability. If universities, worksites, hospitals and schools change the foods they serve, they will change the foods they order, and that kind of institutional demand can change agricultural practices - a systems-level approach to achieving healthier dietary behaviors. My long-term vision in this area is to help create a world-class Stanford Food Systems Initiative and build on the idea that Stanford is uniquely positioned geographically, culturally, and academically, to address national and global crises in the areas of obesity and diabetes that are directly related to our broken food systems.
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Donna Schwontkowski, DC (retired), MS and BS Nutrition, Herbology
Clinical Nutrition, Deficiency Diseases, Heavy Metal & Environmental Toxins, Detoxification, Chiropractic Medicine, Herbal Healing Master Herbalist certification in herbs from the School of Natural Healing BS NutritionDr. Donna Schwontkowski is a retired chiropractic physician with a master’s degree in Nutrition and Herbology. She has focused her career on three primary areas: clinical nutrition, learning and memory, and health/self-improvement publications. Dr. Donna’s mission in life is to act as an intercessor for people in all three of these areas, allowing them via teaching them, working in groups with them, or mentoring them to reach their potential in health, learning and memory, and ability to transform one’s life. Dr. Donna was also a journalist for health and fitness magazines for 15 years, the editor of Sacramento, CA’s Health & Fitness Magazine, and Co-producer and host of a TV show on health for four years. She has taught hundreds of community courses on many aspects of health and natural healing to thousands of students over the years. Her accelerated learning background has also allowed her to teach thousands of college and postgraduate students science and dozens of children how to read five books in a week as well as how to learn any subject quickly, including health and science.
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Peifen Chou, RD
Nutritionist Obstetrics and gynecology, lactation instructor, integrative medicine, aromatherapist, holistic nutritional consulting, functional medicine, and pet nutrition.Peifen is a certified dietitian in Taiwan with a Master's degree in Health and Nutrition from a institute of food science and technology. As a RD in obstetrics and gynecology, She has served over thousands of pregnant women for more than six years, providing comprehensive dietary planning and nutrition counseling for their physical and mental well-being during pregnancy and postpartum, as well as providing diet education and support for mothers with gestational diabetes. To support more postpartum mothers with lactation difficulties, Peifen went to study and obtained a lactation instructor certification in order to help novice mothers and fathers. At the same time, Peifen has also honed her expertise in different fields based on the medical foundation of dietitian. She enjoys exploring mindfulness and mental health, thus taking courses in mindful eating, aromatherapy certification, holistic therapy. Meanwhile, she improving diabetes health education in orthodox medicine, hoping to better integrate mindfulness and orthodox medicine. As a cat owner, Peifen also had the opportunity to develop canned cat food, leading her to research pet nutrition and produce healthy canned food suitable for cats to consume long-term, which is now sold in stores and website. During her spare time, besides traveling and entering the forest, Peifen also enjoys using the characteristics of ingredients and scientific analysis to make dishes and desserts, as well as growing herbs that can be used for cooking. All of them are her sources of happiness.
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Yu-Hsin Liang, MD
ECFMG Certification, Medical Licensure in Taiwan, Clinical Training at National Taiwan University Hospital Graduate Student in Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthYu-Hsin Liang is currently a current graduate student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He received his medical education at the National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Medicine, during which he co-developed a hospital-granted surgical model and a winning integrative web model of machine learning and electronic medical records. Yu-Hsin Liang obtained his physician license in Taiwan in 2022.
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Dr. Hu Naiwen
Professor, the Nine Star University of Health Sciences in Sunnyvale, California Integrated medicineDr. Hu Naiwen is a highly skilled and experienced practitioner in both Western and traditional Chinese medicine. He began his academic journey studying biology at university before specializing in neuroscience and endocrinology during graduate school. Upon completing his studies, Dr. Hu worked in the field of pharmacology and conducted life science research at the prestigious Stanford Research Institute International. Upon returning to Taiwan, Dr. Hu expanded his expertise by delving into the ancient practice of acupuncture and studying the theories of Chinese medicine. This exploration led him to earn a license in traditional Chinese medicine, further enriching his understanding of healthcare and treatment methodologies. Dr. Hu's personal quest for better health led him to explore various schools of qigong, ultimately discovering Falun Gong in his late 40s. This practice not only improved his physical well-being but also enhanced his mental acuity, allowing him to better comprehend and analyze complex medical texts. Throughout his more than 30 years of medical practice, Dr. Hu Naiwen has come to appreciate the strong connection between the cultivation of one's mind and the cultivation of one's life, as well as the relationship between morality and health. By incorporating these principles into his practice, he has helped over 140,000 patients overcome a myriad of illnesses, solidifying his reputation as a dedicated and holistic healthcare professional.
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Lauren Ann Teeter, CNS, LCSW
Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) Licensed Clinician (LCSW) Mindfulness, Biofeedback, Integrative & Functional Medicine Functional & Integrative Approach To Mental Health, Functional Nutrition, Functional & Integrative Medicine, Psychotherapy, Mental HealthLauren is a functional nutritionist and licensed therapist who takes an integrative and functional approach to mental health and overall wellness. Lauren has worked as a clinician, researcher, and writer in mental health and functional nutrition. Lauren takes a root cause approach to wellness— looking at the body, mind, and responses to our environment. Lauren is passionate about empowering others to become their own expert and advocate in terms of optimizing their health and well-being. Lauren has worked with those with various health conditions including digestive, metabolic, hormonal and mental health. Lauren has worked in outpatient and inpatient settings.