Beta-carotene and lutein are two nutrients that are absolutely essential to supporting and protecting your eyesight as you age. And one of nature's best food sources of both of these nutrients is spinach.
If you add a green food powder to this vision-supporting juice recipe, it is best to use one that includes spinach and kale; kale is also rich in lutein and beta-carotene. Read more
In response to last week's post on the collegiate soccer player who recovered from a hip labral tear without surgery, a surgeon friend in Singapore asked me to explain how I think excruciating pain from a hip labral tear can be resolved with simple stretches and foam rolling. If there is a flap of loose labrum in the joint cavity, how can this not illicit pain with certain movements? Read more
Between knees and hips, it's difficult to say which area is more prone to degenerative changes as we age, but in my experience, it's far easier to protect your hips than your knees.
Knees are relatively simple - they are hinge joints, meaning that they are designed to work in one major plane, and generally, they wear down in predictable fashion. The more you grind them through daily life, the weaker your cartilage and ligaments become. Your knees are not well vascularized compared to other major joints in your body, so there isn't a lot you can do by way of stretching and massage to significantly improve blood flow to the cartilage within and the ligaments that surround and stabilize your knee joints. Read more
If you are underweight for your body structure, it's possible that you could experience significant improvement in your health by gaining and maintaining healthy weight.
A healthy body weight often indicates that your major organ systems - including your muscles and bones - are well developed. Of course, being at a healthy weight for your structure doesn't guarantee that your major organ systems are functioning well, but a healthy body weight does decrease the likelihood that you might have or develop osteoporosis or problems with regulating your blood sugar and insulin levels. Read more
If you connect with those who encourage a 100% raw food diet for optimal health, I hope that you'll read this post with an open mind.
In my experience, eating plenty of fresh, nutrient-rich raw foods is a huge plus for most people. But where there is a long history of gastrointestinal distress, I have consistently found that during the initial phases of healing and recovery, it's actually better to eat more cooked foods than raw. Read more
Instead of waiting for a visit to the dentist to be told that your teeth are weakening, try the following: Grit your teeth and inhale, sucking air in through your teeth. If your teeth feel sensitive with this exercise, here’s what you can do to strengthen them: Read more
As a followup to our look at the root causes of autoimmune illness, this post reviews several natural ways to protect yourself against autoimmune illness. In some cases, I've found that the steps outlined below can actually reverse some of the degenerative changes that can accompany various autoimmune illnesses. Read more
Few people realize how vital their knees are to everyday activities until they suffer a serious knee injury.
Michael Jordan remembers the effect that an anterior cruciate ligament tear in a college teammate, Buzz Peterson, had on his friend's level of play. "It's like I can punch a hole in your heart," he recalls telling Buzz as a way of pointing out how tentative his friend's play had become. Read more
Acupressure is a healing art that involves applying pressure to specific points on your body. The idea is to manually stimulate blood flow to your largest nerves, which promotes healthy nerve function, which in turn, promotes optimal cellular function, as all cellular activity is ultimately governed by your nervous system.
So much like you can maintain healthy muscles through regular exercise, you can maintain healthy nerves through regular acupressure. Read more
Pink eye - also known as conjunctivitis - is sometimes accompanied by what appears to be a pimple in the white portion (sclera) of the eye.
Conjunctivitis often looks far worse than it is for the simple reason that you have a close-up look at inflamed and ruptured vessels. All that redness and mishmash of engorged blood vessels looks just as bad under your skin when you experience a bruise, but with a bruise, you don't actually see the goriness. Read more
After 21 years, we made the difficult decision to bring our catalogue to a close. To stay connected with Dr. Kim's writings, please feel free to subscribe for free here: Dr. Ben Kim on Substack. Sending best wishes and thanks to all.