Tag : american

When your doctor tells you to lose weight, it’s not because they care what you look like in a bathing suit. We used to think that fat was just energy stored against the future, and that someday there will be a famine so the skinny would starve and the chubby would inherit the earth.

But that famine never came. We now know that fat produces a variety of hormones, peptides, and enzymes that can have wide-ranging impact on your health. Overweight people have increased risk of diabetes, dementia, cancer, sexual dysfunction, heart disease and strokes. It costs Medicare 50% more every year to treat an obese American compared to one of normal weight. The problem is only 20% of Medicare patients are normal weight.

If we Americans lost our extra weight, most of the healthcare crisis would disappear right along with the pounds.

If you know anything about Longevity Medical Clinic, or about me, you know that I typically focus on ways we mature adults can improve our physical, mental and psychological functions during the last half of our lives. Today’s blog is going to be quite a bit different. That’s because, as many of you know, my wife and I recently had a new baby – and like all new parents I want my baby to be as smart, well-educated, happy and successful as possible in her life. So in addition to the usual hours I spend each day reviewing the latest literature describing what happens to us during the aging process, I’ve recently been spending a little time considering the other end of the life spectrum: child development. What I want to know is: what can I do to make my baby daughter’s little brain as robust and resilient as possible?