Dr. Ben Kim's blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earlier this year, I wrote an article that included several steps that you can take to reduce your risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

I just read a study in the September 2005 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention which suggests that eating at least five portions of certain vegetables and fruits each day can reduce your risk of developing pancreatic cancer by 50 percent. Read more

Ingredients: 

4 zucchini, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 (8 ounce) package button mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, or to taste
1 (15.5 ounce) can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Sea salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Read more

An interesting study in the September, 2005 edition of the journal Heart provides useful guidance on how to use music to decrease stress and promote good health. Read more