Author: Joseph Mercola

By Dr. Mercola While the importance of vitamin D has become more fully appreciated, another vitamin that is just as important as vitamin D, vitamin K2, needs wider recognition. It’s a fat-soluble vitamin most well known for its role in blood clotting. However, there are two primary kinds of vitamin K, and they serve very different functions. Vitamin K1 is the primary form of vitamin K responsible for blood clotting, whereas vitamin K2 is essential for bone strength, the health of arteries and blood vessels, and plays a role in other biological processes as well, including tissue renewal and cell … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola The recent case of an American toddler diagnosed with type 2 diabetes highlights the severity of the problems our modern processed food diet causes. According to Reuters,1 the three-year old girl, who weighed in at 77 pounds, is one of the youngest persons ever diagnosed with this obesity-related disease. In the past, type 2 diabetes was referred to as “adult onset” diabetes, and most patients were in the senior category. But as our diets and lifestyles have changed, so has the disease. And, while lack of exercise is certainly a factor, one would be hard-pressed to accuse a … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola Some people believe that an occasional glass of red wine can benefit your health. Regardless of the merits of this view, too much red wine is a recipe for disaster. Alcohol can impair decision-making abilities and motor skills. It is frequently a factor in vehicular accidents, violent behaviors, unplanned pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to the lethal danger of alcohol poisoning, too, which negatively impacts your health and may even cost you your life if it’s not properly addressed. In the United States alone, there are estimatedly 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola How many meals a day is ideal? There are many answers to this question, but if you want to optimize your lifespan and decrease your risk for developing chronic degenerative diseases, the answer is becoming very clear. The longstanding conventional answer is that most people need three square meals a day with snacks in between to maintain stable blood sugar and insulin levels. However, there’s compelling evidence suggesting this near-continuous grazing may be partially to blame for the obesity and diabetes epidemic. The most obvious risk with spreading out your meals to morning, noon, and evening is … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola Vitamin B12 is fittingly known as the energy vitamin, and your body requires it for a number of vital functions. Among them: energy production, blood formation, DNA synthesis, and myelin formation. Myelin is insulation that protects your nerve endings and allows them to communicate with one another. If you know or suspect you’re vitamin B12 deficient, you’re not alone. Recent studies from the U.S. Framingham trial show one in four adults in the United States are deficient in this vitally important nutrient, and nearly half the population has suboptimal blood levels. How You Get Vitamin B12 Deficient Vitamin … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola A joint report1,2,3,4 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reveals lethal heroin overdoses nearly quadrupled between 2000 and 2013. Between 2000 and 2010, heroin-related deaths rose at an average rate of 6 percent per year. Then, from 2010 to 2013, the average annual increase suddenly jumped to 37 percent. What might account for such a radical increase in heroin overdoses? Visit the Mercola Video Library Prescription Painkillers Pave Way for Heroin Addiction According to CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, opioid painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin, and Percocet … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola If you’re seeking to lose excess weight, counting calories is usually less than helpful. In fact, focusing on calories could easily divert you from the real answer, which lies in optimizing your nutrition. I’ve long advocated against counting calories. Even if you manage to shed a few pounds, you’re not going to get healthier by eating fewer cookies than you did before. In short, if you really want to lose weight and improve your health, then you must replace empty calories and denatured foods with nutrient-rich ones. Nutritional Value Beats Calorie Count Fortunately, even conventional health experts … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola Life is a journey and for most of us health is an important part of that journey, because if you have health challenges your ability to manifest your passions will be seriously impaired. One of my primary passions is health, which is one of the reasons I went to medical school. But that was only a start, as most of what I have learned about optimizing health occurred long after my medical school graduation over 30 years ago. After three decades of managing patients from all over the world and reviewing hundreds of thousands of studies, I … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola In this video, originally aired on public television earlier this year, I highlight some of the foundational basics of effortless healing. Effortless Healing is also the name of my latest book, in which I compiled the best of the expert information I’ve learned and shared on this website over the past two decades. For those of you who missed the book, this article will provide some basic guidance on simple and inexpensive ways to improve your health. Contrary to the impression you get when listening to the drug advertisements on TV, your body is by nature designed … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola Scents can have a powerful influence on your well-being. Aromatherapy, which uses concentrated essences of various botanicals, allows you to harness the olfactory power of plants for healing on many levels. Essential oils carry biologically active volatile compounds in a highly concentrated form that can provide therapeutic benefits in very small amounts. Quality is of the essence here. First of all, what we’re talking about here is pure, therapeutic grade essential oils from plants, NOT synthetic fragrance oils or perfumes, which can be toxic and typically contain allergenic compounds. But even among essential oils, the quality can … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola Drinking pure water every day is a key component of optimal health, yet more than one billion people on Earth do not have access to safe, clean drinking water. Not only is much of the water for the one billion contaminated with infectious organisms, but more than likely the vast majority of the planet has toxins in their municipal drinking water. Two of the primary water polluters are large-scale monocrop farms and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),1 US states with high concentrations of CAFOs report 20 to 30 serious water quality … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola Eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits is widely known to lower your risk of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease while cutting your risk of dying prematurely nearly in half.1 People who eat seven or more servings of vegetables daily, for instance, enjoy a 31 percent lower risk of heart disease and a 25 percent lower risk of cancer. And each additional daily portion of fresh veggies lowered participants’ risk of death by 16 percent (compared to 4 percent for fresh fruit). It’s not any one compound in veggies that makes them so healthy; … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola One in four Americans over the age of 40 is currently taking a statin drug under the illusion that it will decrease their risk for heart disease. Dr. David Diamond is a neuroscientist with a PhD in biology. He’s also a Professor of Psychology, Molecular Pharmacology, and Physiology at the University of South Florida and a Research Career Scientist at the Tampa VA Hospital. He ended up investigating both diet and statins as a result of having to address issues with his own health, and his conclusions are very different from the current status quo in medicine. … Continue reading →

By Dr. Mercola While many go to great lengths to avoid it, sweating actually has many important health- and beauty-related benefits. Your skin is the largest organ of your body, and serves important roles just like any other bodily organ. For example, sweating helps your body: All of these benefits promote general health, and recent research1,2,3,4,5 has even shown that regular sauna use correlates to a reduced risk of death from any cause, including lethal cardiovascular events. Men who used the sauna (Finnish-style, dry heat sauna) seven times per week cut their risk of death from fatal heart problems in … Continue reading →

By Barbara Loe Fisher From flash to bang, it took the politically powerful corporate, medical trade, and government lobbyists just six months this year to gut the human right to informed consent to medical risk taking and the civil right to a school education in California. They did it by enacting a new law (SB 277) signed by Governor Jerry Brown on June 29, 2015 that denies parents the legal right to file a personal belief exemption to vaccination for religious and conscientious beliefs so their children can attend school. In order to sign the bill into law, Governor Brown … Continue reading →