Author: Joseph Mercola

By Dr. Mercola One of the simplest choices you can make in support of your health is to eat real food. Real food refers to vegetables, meats and wild-caught seafood, nuts, seeds, eggs, fruits and raw grass-fed dairy; foods that are in their whole primarily unaltered form. Such foods will not only reward you with rich concentrations of vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants, but they’re also beneficial for what they do not contain — food additives. If you eat processed foods, you’re consuming a chemical cocktail with each bite. Even seemingly simple foods like bread, processed cheese, salad dressing or … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola PBS’ Frontline recently did a hit piece on the supplement industry (see above video if you haven’t already), and your response to them about my Frontline article had a dramatic impact. You clearly have made a difference by pointing out their glaring bias! PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler — whose job it is to review criticism from viewers and “ensure that PBS upholds its own standards of editorial integrity” — received dozens of emails, plus a number of phone calls. In his words: “All of them were critical, some sharply.” On February 5, Getler published a long, detailed … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars to influence, “educate,” and entertain doctors around the world.1 According to ProPublica’s “Dollars for Docs” website, which you can use to find out if your doctor accepts money from the drug industry, 1,630 companies have made payments to more than 681,000 doctors, totaling more than $3.5 billion.2 You can also find out if your doctor receives payments from Big Pharma by visiting OpenPaymentsData.CMS.gov. This site has tallied nearly $6.5 billion in payments since 2013.3 Drug companies have long tried to influence doctors’ prescribing habits by paying them for research activities, speaking … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Of all the treats available, chocolate is one of the most craved foods in the world. The first solid chocolate bar, made from cocoa butter, cocoa powder and sugar, was introduced by the British chocolate company J.S. Fry & Sons in 1847, but the history of chocolate goes back at least 4,000 years.1 Pre-Olmec cultures in Mexico produced chocolate as early as 1900 B.C. Originally, it was consumed as a bitter beverage. The cacao beans were fermented, roasted, and then ground into a paste that was mixed with water and spices like chili peppers and vanilla, sweetened … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Each day, some 1,600 people die of cancer in the United States. That number goes up 10-fold, up to 21,000 if you include the global population. While conventional medicine has little to offer outside the standard “cut, poison, burn” approach, new evidence suggests simple dietary modifications could effectively both treat and prevent the majority of these cancers. Travis Christofferson is the author of a phenomenal book called “Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Illuminates a New and Hopeful Path to a Cure.” I read 150 books last year and this was … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Last year, a measles outbreak at Disneyland brought the vaccine safety and choice  debate front and center in the media. What should have been an intelligent discussion that weighed the potential risks versus the potential benefits of vaccination — and highlighted the very real need for more research into their safety — turned into an over-heated, often irrational  argument. Parents who dared to speak out in favor of vaccine choice were oftentimes attacked for their position, with some mandatory vaccination supporters going so far as to call for parents of unvaccinated children to be fined and imprisoned. … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola If you’re still using non-stick cookware, you may want to seriously reconsider. Ditto for using stain- and water-repellant clothing, and opting for stain-resistant carpets and fabrics. All of these products — and many more — contain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8), which has been revealed to be far more dangerous than previously thought. For 50 years, DuPont used PFOA to make Teflon. Throughout that time, the company has defended the safety of PFOA, and still resists accountability for health problems resulting from exposure to this day. However, the truth has finally come to light. I started … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Dietary fiber may be far more important than previously imagined. According to a report1 funded by the Council for Responsible Nutrition Foundation (CRNF), were American adults over the age of 55 with heart disease to take psyllium dietary fiber every day, it could save the healthcare system nearly $4.4 billion a year. The effect may be even greater than that though, as new research reveals lack of fiber in the diet may impact not just your health, but that of your children and even great-grandchildren too. How’s that, you might ask? By changing the diversity of bacteria … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Eighty percent of people will experience back pain at some point during their lives. It’s one of the most common health challenges, yet many people fail to find lasting relief, even after seeking medical help. If you visit a doctor for back pain, you’re likely to receive a prescription as a solution. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is the recommended first-line drug treatment for back pain, despite the fact that a recent systematic review and meta-analysis found it to be ineffective for this purpose.1 Chris Maher, a physical therapist and researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia told NPR:2 … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola According to the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s 2013 study1 “Sugar: Consumption at a Crossroads,” as much as 40 percent of US healthcare expenditures are for diseases directly related to the overconsumption of sugar. Incredibly, we spend more than $1 trillion each year fighting the damaging health effects of sugar, which runs the gamut from obesity and diabetes, to heart disease and cancer. The fact that sugar and obesity are linked to an increased risk of cancer is now becoming well-recognized. According to a report2 on the global cancer burden, published in 2014, obesity is responsible for an … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola If you care about your health, filtering your household water is more a necessity than an option these days. Water pollution has become a very significant problem that simply cannot be ignored any longer. It doesn’t matter where you live, as many of the most dangerous chemicals find their way into the ecosystem and food chain, spreading from one continent to another, as described in a recent article by Prevent Disease.1 Fish and other wildlife are demonstrating the ramifications of out of control water pollution, and there’s cause to believe chemical pollution may be affecting human health … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola The connection between your food and your mood has been the focus of occasional scientific inquiry over the past couple of decades. Your diet can have a pronounced biochemical effect on your mental health, but the reverse is also true—your emotional state can influence the foods you choose, as well as being a major force behind food cravings. Dr. Brian Wansink1 of Cornell University, author of more than 200 articles and books about the psychology of eating, is featured in the PBS documentary “Food on the Brain.” This program explores the psychology of eating and provides tips … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola One of the easiest and best ways to improve your health and avoid disease is to eat real food; cooking your meals from scratch using whole ingredients, ideally organic, to avoid chemical additives and contaminants like pesticides. Sadly, doctors have been notoriously clueless about nutrition as a way to improve health. On average, medical students in the U.S. receive less than 24 hours of nutrition instruction.1 But that may be slowly changing. I would also add that doctors who grow their own food and understand regenerative agriculture and the similarities between human health also have a distinct … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola One of your most basic health principles is to eat real food. This will radically reduce your exposure to the tens of thousands of chemicals added to processed foods, most of which are not even on the label. Many are still under the illusion that whole grains are good for you, but while this may have held true for your grandparent’s generation, it’s not true today. The thing that people tend to forget is that virtually all grain products you buy today have gone through industrial processing. Grains have also been altered through time, and growing methods … Continue reading →

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By Dr. Mercola Happy New Year! This year, what do you say we all skip the New Year’s resolution? About half of Americans make them, and most start out strong but come February or March, many have already thrown in the towel. Overall, it’s estimated that 92 percent of Americans fail to achieve the goals they commit to on New Year’s Day.1 And so, I’m proposing this instead: in place of a New Year’s resolution, make a commitment to simply live better this year. This is an ongoing process, a lifestyle change, not an impulsive resolution that you blurted out … Continue reading →

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