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Dr. Ben Kim's blog

Eight Things That I Know For Sure

One of my wife's favourite pastimes is to read Oprah Magazine at the kitchen table while sipping on a mug of hot tea. We actually go to the library once every couple of weeks to borrow a few issues of Oprah Magazine to have for this purpose.

From time to time, I like to flip through these magazines as well. I like some of Dr. Phil's advice on relationships, as well as Suze Orman's financial guidance. Read more

 

Skin-To-Skin Contact Is Healthy For Mothers And Their Babies

One of the reasons why my wife and I decided to have a home birth was to ensure that our baby would go straight where he belonged as soon as he entered the world: to my wife's chest. It saddens me to know that providing newborn babies with immediate physical contact with their mothers is not always given the priority it deserves in today's health care system. Read more

 

Mashed Split Pea and Shallot Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup green or yellow split peas
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large clove of garlic, chopped
4 tablespoons of organic butter, softened
Sea salt and ground black pepper (optional)
6-8 sage leaves, roughtly chopped (if available)
1 bay leaf

Directions:

Put split peas in a bowl and cover with plenty of cold water. Soak overnight on kitchen counter, rinse and drain before preparing dish. Read more

 

Emotional Stress: How Chronic Emotional Stress Can Ruin Your Health

What's the most powerful step you can take to dramatically improve your health?

My answer is this:

Learn how to effectively manage emotional stress

All of my clinical and personal experiences over the years have me convinced that no other factor has more influence over your health.

Not diet, not exercise, not even how much you sleep. Read more

 

Potential Dangers Of Anti-Influenza Drug Tamiflu

I just read a disturbing article in the New York Times about recent reports of deaths and abnormal behaviour in Japanese children who were given the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu.

Here is a summary of the key points I learned from this article:

1. Tamiflu was approved for use in the United States in 1999, and in Japan in late 2000.

2. According to Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, of the 13 million prescriptions written for children worldwide, 11.6 million have been in Japan. Read more

 

Using Honesty to Build a Good Relationship

Do you feel hopeless about an important relationship in your life? Do you feel that you are doomed to suffer for the rest of your life with an unreasonable, inconsiderate, and mean-spirited partner? If so, you're definitely not alone. In fact, I would say that you are in the majority. Read more

 

Mashed Garlic Sweet Potatoes Recipe

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted, organic butter (omit if dairy-free)
1 garlic clove, minced
Sea salt and ground black pepper (optional)

Directions:

Boil sweet potatoes for approximately 15 minutes or until quite tender. Drain sweet potatoes and put them in a big bowl. Read more

 

Tabbouleh Wrap With Guacamole Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup bulgur wheat
Handful of choped flat leaf parsley, fresh
1 bunch of green onions (about 4-6 rods), sliced
1/2 cucumber, diced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 large lemon
Sea salt and ground black pepper (optional)
4 wheat tortillas Read more

 

When To Take Probiotics

I learned something interesting about probiotics this past week from a column in Alive magazine, a Canadian publication that can be found in most health food stores throughout Canada.

Francine Mondou, a microbiologist who specializes in manufacturing probiotics, suggests that it is optimal to take probiotics on a full stomach.

Her reasoning is based on the fact that an empty stomach has a very acidic environment - a pH of about 1.5 to 2.5. Right after a meal, the environment in the stomach becomes less acidic, rising to a pH of about 4.0 to 6.0. Read more

 

Time & Energy-Saving Laundry Tips

The other day, it occurred to my wife and I that ithad been taking a lot longer than usual for our dryer to get our laundry dry.

We pulled the dryer away from the wall and opened up the exhaust tube to find that it was completely filled up with lint, almost about two feet deep! After getting down and dirty emptying that tube, we went to the garage where the other end of the tube comes out to release the moisture that dryers produce. There, we found another build-up of lint, this time about a foot deep. Read more

 

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