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Fasting and Plant-Based Diets for Migraines and Traumatic Brain Injuries 

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What effects do fasting and a plant-based diet have on TBI and migraines? An uncontrolled and unpublished study purported to show a beneficial effect of fasting on migraine headaches, but fasting may be more likely to trigger a migraine than help it. In fact, “skipped meals are among the most consistently identified dietary triggers” of headaches in general. In a review of hundreds of fasts at the TrueNorth Health Center in California, the incidence of headache was nearly one in three, but TrueNorth also published a remarkable case report on post-traumatic headache. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than a million Americans sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) every year. Chronic pain is a common complication, affecting perhaps three-quarters of those who suffer such an injury. There are drugs, of course, to treat post-traumatic headache. There are always drugs. And if drugs don’t work, there is surgery, cutting the nerves to the...
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Should We Fast for IBS?

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More than half of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferers appear to have a form of atypical food allergy. A chronic gastrointestinal disorder, irritable bowel syndrome affects about one in ten people. You may have heard about low-FODMAP diets, but they don’t appear to work any better than the standard advice to avoid things like coffee or spicy and fatty foods. In fact, you can hardly tell which is which, as shown below and at 0:27 in my video Friday Favorites: Fasting for Irritable Bowel Syndrome . Most IBS patients, however, do seem to react to specific foods, such as eggs, wheat, dairy, or soy sauce, but when they’re tested with skin prick tests for typical food allergies, they may come up negative. We want to know what happens inside their gut when they eat those things, though, not what happens on their skin. Enter confocal laser endomicroscopy. You can snake a microscope down the throat, into the gut, and watch in real-time as the gut wall becomes inflamed and leaky aft...
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Might Meat Trigger Parkinson’s Disease? 

What does the gut have to do with developing Parkinson’s disease? Parkinson’s disease is an ever-worsening neurodegenerative disorder that results in death and affects about 1 in 50 people as they get older. A small minority of cases are genetic, running in families, but 85% to 90% of cases are sporadic, meaning they seem to pop up out of nowhere. Parkinson’s is caused by the death of a certain kind of nerve cell in the brain. Once about 70% of them are gone, the symptoms start. What kills off those cells? It still isn’t completely clear, but the abnormal clumping of a protein called alpha-synuclein or α-synuclein is thought to be involved. Why? Researchers injected blended Parkinson’s brains into the heads of rats and monkeys, and Parkinson’s pathology and symptoms were induced. It can even happen when injecting just the pure, clumped α-synuclein strands themselves. How, though, do these clumps naturally end up in the brain? As I discuss in my video The Role Meat May Play in Trigg...
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Lose Weight with Cumin and Saffron? 

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The spice cumin can work as well as orlistat, the “anal leakage” obesity drug. In my video Friday Favorites: Benefits of Black Cumin for Weight Loss , I discussed how a total of 17 randomized controlled trials showed that the simple spice could reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels. And its side effects? A weight-loss effect. Saffron is another spice found to be effective for treating a major cause of suffering—depression, in this study, with a side effect of decreased appetite. Indeed, when put to the test in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, saffron was found to lead to significant weight loss, five pounds more than placebo, and an extra inch off the waist in eight weeks. The dose of saffron used in the study was the equivalent of drinking a cup of tea made from a large pinch of saffron threads. Suspecting the active ingredient might be crocin, the pigment in saffron that accounts for its crimson color, as shown here and at 0:59 in my video Friday Favo...
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Med Students Must Stop Performing Pelvic Exams on Unconscious Women Without Their Consent 

Please note: This blog contains descriptions of sexual assault. “Recent reports of medical students performing pelvic exams for training purposes on anesthetized women without their consent”—or their knowledge—“have produced a firestorm of controversy and calls for greater regulation.” However, that “burst of public outcry” was in the mid-1990s. California was the first state to make the practice illegal, but the “early gains quickly petered out.” As I discuss in my video Ending the Hidden Practice of Pelvic Exams on Unconscious Women Without Their Consent , “This practice, common since the late 1800s, was largely unchallenged until a 2003 study reported that 90 percent of medical students who completed obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn) rotations at four Philadelphia-area medical schools performed pelvic exams on anesthetized women for educational purposes.” (A subsequent study found the percentage to be lower than that in other areas of the country.) The bottom line? “Pelvic Ex...
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Celebrating Food and National Hispanic Heritage Month with Ale Graf

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We had the pleasure of talking with Ale Graf about her work, food, and National Hispanic Heritage Month. We hope you enjoy this interview and her recipe for Hibiscus Chamoy.     As someone who creates Mexican dishes with a plant-based twist, how is food an important part of your culture and how you share your culture with others? Food is so much more than nourishment—it’s how we love, connect, and remember who we are. For Mexicans, food is truly part of our DNA. From ancient times, when our ancestors offered food to the gods, to modern-day sobremesas with family and friends, sharing food is how we express love. I grew up surrounded by women who talked about recipes the way others talk about dreams. My mother, grandmother, and aunts were always planning the next meal or discovering a new dish. Now I do the same with my siblings. Even though my food today is mostly plant-based, its essence is the same: to bring people together. Through my recipes, I want to recreate t...
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“An Outrageous Assault”: Pelvic Exams by Med Students on Anesthetized Women 

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Please note: This blog contains descriptions of sexual assault. From Heart Failure , a book I wrote about my time at Tufts University School of Medicine: “I am all gloved up, fifth in line. At Tufts, medical students—particularly male students—practice pelvic exams on anesthetized women without their consent and without their knowledge. Women come in for surgery and, once they’re asleep, we all gather around; line forms to the left…We learn more than examination skills. Taking advantage of the woman’s vulnerability—as she lay naked on a table unconscious—we learn that patients are tools to exploit for our education.” Using female patients to teach pelvic exams without their consent or knowledge remains “a dirty little secret about medical schools.” It is an “age-old” practice that continues to this day in med schools around the world. It’s been referred to as “the ‘vending machine’ model of pelvic exams, in which medical students line up to take their turn…” “Only it’s not a ven...
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