Understand that 80% of heart disease is preventable through your lifestyle. Focus on a healthy lifestyle including an appropriate diet (Mediterranean or DASH), sufficient sleep, reduced environmental chemical exposure, stress management, regular exercise, and strong emotional connections.
Cultivate close relationships with family, friends, or through community involvement (e.g., volunteering, religious organizations). Strong social support systems quiet the nervous system, manage stress, and are linked to longer, healthier lives.
Prioritize whole, less-processed foods like fresh eggs, vegetables, fruits, and grains. Avoid ultra-processed foods that negatively impact your microbiome and overall health.
Incorporate foods rich in antioxidants (fruits, vegetables), omega-3 fatty acids (SMASHFISH, walnuts, flax seeds), and fiber. Include anti-inflammatory foods like mushrooms, turmeric, and ginger to reduce inflammation, a root cause of many diseases.
Improve sleep hygiene by going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, including weekends, to support your circadian rhythm.
Ensure your sleep room is dark, quiet, and cool. Reduce bright light exposure at night, especially blue light from screens, as it suppresses melatonin production.
Avoid stimulating activities like news before bed. Engage in relaxing practices such as meditation, guided imagery, binaural sounds, or breath work to quiet your system for sleep.
Engage in any amount of physical movement, even short bursts (e.g., 5-10 minutes), especially outdoors. Any activity is beneficial for health, creativity, and productivity.
Stop eating at least three hours before bed and aim for a minimum 12-hour overnight fast, consuming only non-caloric fluids. This allows your digestive system to rest, reboots your body, and supports metabolic health.
Reduce exposure to environmental chemicals by choosing safer cleaning products (e.g., clear vinegar, baking soda) and personal care items. Opt for organic foods and use a water filter.
Research conditions with AI (e.g., ChatGPT) and use it to create concise summaries of your medical history and theories for your doctor, improving communication and saving time. Always vet AI information with your physician.
If you prefer a broader, lifestyle-focused approach, seek integrative medicine practitioners. These doctors consider mind, body, spirit, and community, using evidence-based practices from both conventional and complementary medicine.
Before appointments, especially for complex issues, make a list of questions. This ensures your needs are addressed efficiently, as anxiety can make you forget important points.
Download free apps like Environmental Working Group’s Healthy Living or YUKA to scan product barcodes. These apps identify carcinogens, reproductive toxicants, or allergens, helping you choose safer products.
If you lack social support, volunteer. It’s an excellent way to meet new people, foster community connections, and improve well-being.
For most musculoskeletal injuries (excluding fractures), avoid anti-inflammatory medications and icing. Inflammation is a natural part of the healing process, and suppressing it can hinder your body’s rapid recovery reflex.
For musculoskeletal injuries (excluding fractures), protect the joint with compression but avoid prolonged rest. Start moving the injured area (within pain limits) to reduce fluid buildup and aid healing.
After the initial injury phase (first few days), use heat to relieve pain and increase blood flow to the area. Heat signals travel faster than pain, and increased circulation brings healing factors.
Incorporate sauna use into your routine. Saunas can reduce cold risk, aid musculoskeletal injuries, and are being studied for other health benefits (under supervision for certain conditions).
Engage in physical activity like a brisk walk or run to relieve anxiety. This is a direct, physical method to manage anxious feelings.
Naturally stimulate your vagus nerve by humming. This simple technique can help reduce anxiety.
Be aware of your personal caffeine limit. Reduce intake, especially in the afternoon or evening, if coffee causes anxiety or interferes with sleep due to its long half-life.
Regularly take a B50 complex supplement (50 milligrams/micrograms of all eight B vitamins). This has been shown in multiple randomized control trials to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.
For regular anxiety management, take a daily supplement of omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil), ensuring you get 2 grams of EPA and DHA.
If you have trouble falling asleep or wake at night, take sublingual melatonin about 30 minutes before bed or as needed. Its short half-life avoids morning grogginess.
Use free sleep apps like Insight Timer for guided imagery, sounds, or stories to quiet your nervous system and gently fall asleep. Consistent use helps entrain your system.
Consider valerian, a safe botanical, to aid sleep. It can be combined with other herbs like hops or passionflower and does not cause dependency.
If you are ‘wired and tired’ (exhausted but unable to sleep), take ashwagandha before bed. This adaptogen has a quieting effect that aids sleep.
Consider taking inositol powder before bed to help with both sleep and anxiety.
Take L-theanine, an amino acid found in green tea, as a dietary supplement to help relieve anxiety on an as-needed basis.
Use a weighted blanket, which has evidence for reducing anxiety. The only potential side effect is feeling too warm.
If anxious, especially at bedtime, use guided imagery on an app or engage in prayer to quiet your nervous system and release anxious thoughts.
Practice careful hand-washing regularly to prevent colds and flus, especially when exposed to sick individuals.
Wear a mask if you are in an environment where many people are sick to reduce your risk of catching an infectious disease.
Use a neti pot or squeeze bottle with salt water to rinse sinuses when sick or exposed to illness. This thins mucus, clears passages, and can reduce viral load.
At the first sign of illness, take a few zinc lozenges daily (around 25mg/day, often with vitamin C or elderberry). Zinc boosts immunity and can reduce cold severity.
Crush or chop a clove of garlic and let it sit for 10 minutes to activate allicin, then incorporate it into your diet. This provides antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal benefits.
Use elderberry syrup or gummies, which have been shown to shorten the duration of both colds and the flu.
Brew a strong echinacea tea (steep 10 mins with lid), adding black tea, pressed raw garlic, lemon juice, honey, and cayenne pepper to soothe sore throats and speed cold recovery.
Any type of honey effectively soothes sore throats and stops coughing, as supported by research. It’s safe for children over one year old.
Use cough drops (like zinc lozenges) or specific ’throat coat’ teas with herbal remedies to calm irritated throat tissues.
Include vitamin C in your diet (fresh oranges or supplements like Emergen-C) when sick to support your immune system and increase fluid intake.
If a low-grade fever isn’t too distressing, consider skipping Tylenol or Advil. Fever is part of your immune system’s natural rapid recovery reflex, helping fight infection.
If you have existing heart disease risk factors (high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes), consider supplements like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, magnesium, or red yeast rice, in consultation with your doctor.
For tendonitis, consider acupuncture as a potentially helpful treatment.
For inflammatory conditions like tendonitis, inquire about platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, which are injected locally to help with these issues.