The Lean Bulk / Lean Body Guide & Challenge - START HERE
The Lean Bulk / Lean Body Guide & Challenge - START HERE
by Dr David Minkoff March 03, 2024 3 min read
Bulking and Cutting has been around for decades now.
We workout hard, we count our macros and eat and eat and eat, and build lots of muscle.
But at the same time that we’re building muscle, we also build body fat. And we build each at about the same rate, a pound of muscle for a pound of fat.
Then we do a cut, cutting back on our calories, and in some cases starving ourselves (which is never necessary).
And, of course, we do a lot of extra cardio — running, biking, sprints, etc. — all to lose that extra body fat we gained.
And hopefully we don’t lose too much of our muscle gains in the process.
Now, I have no problem if someone enjoys that. Many people do. But many others don’t.
And the thing is, this isn’t necessary.
At all.
by Dr David Minkoff February 25, 2024 7 min read
It hasn’t been understood by most people just how vital our gut health is to our heart health.
But in truth, it’s key. If our gut health is good, and our digestive tract working properly, the risk of poor heart health is much lower.
If our gut is in poor condition, however (heart burn or acid reflux often, bloating, pains, regular diarrhea, or worse), then this will, over time, lead to poor heart health.
But gut health among Americans has diminished drastically in recent times, worsening every year mainly due to our processed foods and sugars, and the 50x increase in toxins in our environment in the last 7 decades.
Now, younger and younger people every year are experiencing more and more gut issues which were rare even in older individuals in earlier generations.
This is something we need to address now, for each of us, to ensure a long and healthy life.
by Dr David Minkoff February 22, 2024 6 min read
Approximately 1.2 million Americans suffer a heart attack every year. That’s about 1 in 300.
But of those who die each year, about 50% of them have, but ignore, the warning signs that a heart attack may be coming.
In the last article we covered how cardiovascular disease, or heart disease, comes about in the first place.
In this article we go deeper into what happens here, what the aftermath is, what the warning signs are (which can be minutes, hours, days or even weeks beforehand), and what the best prevention is.
This is an important one.
by Dr David Minkoff February 18, 2024 7 min read
In the last article in the Heart Health Series we covered how consuming cholesterol is not actually the cause of heart disease.
And how lowering cholesterol levels with drugs, to lower high blood pressure, actually increases the risk of heart disease among those 60 and above.
But while the idea that cholesterol intake causes heart disease may be a myth, heart disease itself is quite real.
In this article we’ll dive more into this, covering what high blood pressure is, why and how it occurs, and what’s actually behind it.
by Dr David Minkoff February 15, 2024 6 min read
Before we cover what actually causes Heart disease, I want to cover something that doesn’t, or at least not in the way most people think: cholesterol.
You’ve probably heard of the Cholesterol Hypothesis.
This hypothesis states that higher levels of cholesterol, particularly LDL Cholesterol, are associated with higher rates of Heart Disease.
To prevent heart disease then, we take drugs known as statins that lower our liver’s ability to produce cholesterol.
This hypothesis has been so deeply ingrained in our understanding of how the body works, that the idea of challenging it is almost laughable. (Even though it’s still just a hypothesis after all this time.)
However, over the last decade, more and more scientists and doctors have been doing just that, and for one very glaring reason: there is no evidence to support the hypothesis.
Let's see what's happening here.
by Dr. David Minkoff December 04, 2023 7 min read
There is something called Metabolic Syndrome. And while you may or may not have heard of it, about one third of the US population has it.
And almost 90% of us are somewhere on our way to it.
It's a group of symptoms occurring together that show a lowered functioning in the overall processes within our body that keep us alive, healthy and doing well.
And it can lead to:
As only about 12% of the population of the US are metabolically healthy as of ten years ago… it’s something that is important for us to understand so we know both what is happening, and also what to do about it.
by Dr. David Minkoff November 07, 2023 5 min read
There is an idea that saturated fats raise cholesterol and so blood pressure, and this isn’t the case.
Your body needs saturated fats. About 25% of each of your cells are made from saturated fat. And they wouldn’t function without it.
Even more, it’s necessary if we want soft, healthy skin.
But there is another type of fat which has been confused with saturated fats, and which is very destructive: Trans Fats.
We aren’t hearing as much about them today, but they exist in many processed foods and we need to check for them as they cause inflammation in the blood vessels that does lead to high blood pressure.
So let’s see what these are and what they do.
by Dr. David Minkoff October 24, 2023 5 min read
Testosterone levels have been dropping for decades, while estrogen levels have risen sharply. And thyroid is a huge problem.
Hormonal imbalances are no longer just being deficient in one or another hormone.
There are exact chemicals in the environment, in our food, air, and water, which didn’t exist before, chemicals that block hormones from being created, block them from being able to communicate their instructions to a cell, disrupt their normal actions, or impersonate them entirely.
by Dr. David Minkoff October 12, 2023 4 min read
This is the end of the Gut Health 30-Day Challenge. Now it’s time to take a step back and see where we are, and where we go next!
The goals for this program were:
by Dr. David Minkoff October 08, 2023 5 min read
While we’ve all heard of Candida, most of us don’t actually know what it is and how it works.
But it’s something we do need to know, as almost all of us have it.
And when it gets out of control, as it often does with today’s diets, it can cause all sorts of trouble, affecting our mood, our sleep, our ability to recover both from illness and exercise and our overall health.
And it can create some pretty uncomfortable physical conditions.
by Dr. David Minkoff October 03, 2023 7 min read
We’ve covered how toxins affect our digestive tract and microbiome.
But now we’re going to cover how the weed killer Glyphosate affects us, because this is one of the most toxic substances there is and, due to its widespread use, it’s in almost all processed foods and non-organic meats.
And it plays a very large roll in the destruction of our digestive tract, microbiome and overall health, leading to some of the worst physical conditions there are, as well as premature aging.
by Dr. David Minkoff October 01, 2023 4 min read
In the last article we covered what the microbiome is, a colony of trillions of bacteria in our colon, and how it affects every aspect of our health, our hormones, our longevity and the ability to build muscle and stay fit.
These bacteria also produce or help to produce neurotransmitters in our body, such as Serotonin and GABA, which calm and relax us, de-stress us and allow us to fall asleep.
In this article we’re going to cover how the number of toxins coming into our body, which increases every year, affects these bacteria.
by Dr. David Minkoff
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