Health Science Insights offer the unique perspective of the NHA on a wide variety of health topics:
Topic 5: Nutritional Supplementation
Topic 6: Problems with Milk and Dairy Products
Topic 8: The Role and Benefits of Sunlight
Topic 9: Protein Requirements and Aging
- What Causes Arterial Aging?Arteries are large blood vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and heart, and vital nutrients from the digestive system, to every cell and organ of the body . This allows cells to transform nutrients from the food you eat, with the oxygen you inspire, into abundant energy reserves in the energy factories of… Read more: What Causes Arterial Aging?
- Digestive Health Beyond ProbioticsThe digestive system is an integrated series of body parts and organs that breaks down the complicated food you eat into the simple building blocks of protein, fats, carbohydrates, and micronutrients that maintain your energy reserves and nurture/repair/renew all the cells of your body. Since starch digestion starts in your mouth with the release… Read more: Digestive Health Beyond Probiotics
- What About Alcohol?The routine consumption of alcohol (ethanol) is the number one substance use disorder/ drug addiction in the world. Yet, early research suggested that moderate alcohol consumption may promote some health benefits, like the recommendation of a glass of red wine to protect the heart. This fed a false sense of security and common mindset that… Read more: What About Alcohol?
- The Hidden Costs of Convenience FoodsThe ubiquitous availability and exaggerated use of processed and ultra-processed food products has led to these products being euphemistically labeled fast or “convenience foods”. If the accepted definition of convenience is something that saves work or contributes to your ease or comfort, than this is an insidious misnomer. Ultra-processed foods are the worst of processed… Read more: The Hidden Costs of Convenience Foods
- Is Coffee Healthy?Caffeine is the most frequently consumed, socially acceptable, mood altering drug in the world. The primary delivery system for this drug is coffee, and the habitual use of coffee to mask exhaustion, wake up in the morning, stay alert, and prop up physical performance throughout the day makes coffee the most popular beverage in the… Read more: Is Coffee Healthy?
- Is Soy Safe?For quite some time, there has been confusion and controversy about the consumption of soy products, especially in plant-based diets where they may be eaten more routinely and abundantly. This controversy has centered on two well known isoflavones, genistein and daidzein, that are plant estrogens (phytoestrogens) found in soybeans. Since elevations in the production, drug… Read more: Is Soy Safe?
- What does “Optimal Nutrition” Really Mean?It is undeniable that the quality and composition of your diet is one of the most important parts of your daily lifestyle routine, making the most significant contribution to your expression of health or disease. However, with the confusing excess of misleading, erroneous information on diet/nutrition that continues to be promoted, it is essential to… Read more: What does “Optimal Nutrition” Really Mean?
- Why Whole Foods Beat SupplementsA wealth of data clearly shows that the single most important lifestyle change anyone can make is to adopt a whole food plant-exclusive dietary plan. (1) (2) The consumption of an abundant array of whole fruits and vegetables significantly prevents/reduces risk factors including dangerous increases of chronic inflammation, free radical damage, blood pressure, blood sugar,… Read more: Why Whole Foods Beat Supplements
- Breaking A Water Fast The Right WayThe re-feeding period after water-only fasting is essential to ease the person back into normal eating, optimize the benefits of the fast, and reinforce the success of the fasting experience. In fasting centers, the typical standard of care is to utilize half the time of the fast to ease back into a full eating regimen.… Read more: Breaking A Water Fast The Right Way
- Preparing for a Successful Water FastSince its inception in 1948, the National Health Association (NHA) has distinguished itself from all other health organizations by its unique, unwavering commitment to water-only fasting. For decades it has promoted and supported physicians dedicated to the research and clinical practice of fasting. In connection with the NHA, there is an International Association of Hygienic… Read more: Preparing for a Successful Water Fast
- The Superpower of Personal ChoiceHealth and healing are the natural outcome and an essential function of all living organisms; the manifestations of a ceaseless biological process that is as constant as the earth turning on its axis. The body is a masterpiece of wisdom and order. It is constantly using energy (whole plant food) to maintain order, stability, and… Read more: The Superpower of Personal Choice
- Social Connection for Healthy Aging and LongevityIn the current search for some ephemeral fountain of youth, questionable bio-hacks, supplements, drugs and surgical interventions are presented as quick fix approaches to slow down and even prevent the decline of aging. Unfortunately, this can distract people from the basic lifestyle requirements that have the greatest impact on healthy aging, including a whole plant… Read more: Social Connection for Healthy Aging and Longevity
- Allergy and Food Sensitivity: What’s Eating YouBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Many years ago, a woman came to me after suffering for years with the most intense constellation of allergies I have ever seen. Any food she had ever been exposed to previously in her life, including most chemicals in her known universe, triggered classic allergy symptoms of hives, mucus discharge, blood… Read more: Allergy and Food Sensitivity: What’s Eating You
- Novelty: The Missing Pillar of Lifelong Brain HealthBy Jayney Goddard, MSc, PG Dip Ed, FCMA, FRSM If you are reading this, you have likely already done the hard work of building your health from the ground up – through a clean, plant-based diet, daily movement, restorative sleep, sunlight, fresh air, and the careful management of your reaction to the stressors in your… Read more: Novelty: The Missing Pillar of Lifelong Brain Health
- Problems With Excess Salt in Your DietBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Salt is the most ubiquitous, overused, and abused condiment in the human diet. It is the major additive, along with sugar and oil, used by the processed-food industry to produce hyper-palatable, ultra-processed junk food that can promote compulsive overeating, food addiction, high blood pressure, and weight gain. Every cell in the… Read more: Problems With Excess Salt in Your Diet
- Visceral Fat and Its Role in Chronic DiseaseBy Dr. Frank Sabatino All too often, weight loss programs and weight loss drug approaches mistakenly focus on body weight, and overlook excess body fat as the most significant health risk. In fact, landmark research in Finland demonstrated that you can have normal, healthy body weight and still have a dangerous excess of body fat.… Read more: Visceral Fat and Its Role in Chronic Disease
- Mitochondrial Health and Energy ProductionBy Dr. Frank Sabatino The dance of life and death within the body is a many splendored thing. All cells go through relentless rituals of birth, growth, death, nutrient intake, waste elimination, damage, repair, and metabolic activity that maintains/balances all body systems and functions. Since all these processes require energy, it is imperative to have enough usable… Read more: Mitochondrial Health and Energy Production
- Immune Resilience and Viral VulnerabilityBy Dr. Frank Sabatino In recent years, an erroneous narrative and pandemic of fear has been promoted in response to extensive viral infection. The profound capability for healing that resides within each of us has been overlooked, minimized and disrespected. We have all been distanced from the incredible ability of the body to protect itself, and… Read more: Immune Resilience and Viral Vulnerability
- Insulin Resistance and MetabolismBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Blood sugar (glucose) control is one of the most important functions of the body. Only plants can take the direct energy of the sun and produce glucose that is transformed and stored as energy reserves in the energy factories of your cells (mitochondria). The body is always concerned that we have enough… Read more: Insulin Resistance and Metabolism
- Circadian Rhythm, Meal Timing, and Metabolic HealthBy Dr. Frank Sabatino The sublime dance of life and health is choreographed by a remarkable array of rhythms and patterns around and within us. As the earth spins on its axis over a 24 hour period, a circadian rhythm synchronized to the daily cycle of day light and darkness influences our important cycle of… Read more: Circadian Rhythm, Meal Timing, and Metabolic Health
- Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) in Disease and AgingBy Dr. Frank Sabatino For almost a century, it has been known that restricting calories, while still maintaining adequate nutrition, promotes longevity in a wide variety of species. (1) In the 1980s, I was personally involved in calorie restriction research on rodents in which restricting food intake to 50-70% of that eaten by normally fed… Read more: Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) in Disease and Aging
- Why You Don’t Have to Count Calories on a Whole Food Plant DietBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Excessive weight and body fat is the modern-day pandemic affecting 40% of the global population. The US has the largest rate of obesity of any developed nation (1) as more than 70% of Americans are overweight and more than 40% are obese. (2) This dangerous situation is associated with an increased… Read more: Why You Don’t Have to Count Calories on a Whole Food Plant Diet
- Fighting Cancer at the Dinner Table: What the Research ShowsBy Dr. Frank Sabatino The word cancer alone strikes fear in the collective minds of our population, and is typically perceived as a death knell by people that have received this diagnosis. While the war on cancer has been waged by the medical and pharmaceutical industries, with an arsenal of dangerous chemical, radiation and surgical… Read more: Fighting Cancer at the Dinner Table: What the Research Shows
- Is Protein Deficiency a Real Concern on a Whole-Food Plant Diet?By Dr. Frank Sabatino In the early part of the 19th century, protein was recognized as a primary building block of life and given a name derived from the Greek word proteios meaning “of the first rank or importance”. And in 1902, it was proposed that proteins are composed of building blocks, amino acids, bonded… Read more: Is Protein Deficiency a Real Concern on a Whole-Food Plant Diet?
- The Fiber Fix: How a Healthy Microbiome Protects Your HealthBy Dr. Frank Sabatino There is a vast, teeming world of trillions of microorganisms living within you that are essential to life and health. Several pounds of these creatures live in the intestine and are referred to as the gut microbiota/microbiome (GM). Extensive research continues to reveal that the diversity and activity of the GM… Read more: The Fiber Fix: How a Healthy Microbiome Protects Your Health
- The Difference Between Intermittent Fasting and Prolonged Water FastingBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Programs of calorie restriction and modified eating have become popular for promoting health and weight loss. Some of these programs have often been suggested as routine dietary practices while also being compared and promoted as alternatives to water-only fasting. However, while these approaches provide potential benefits and risks that should be… Read more: The Difference Between Intermittent Fasting and Prolonged Water Fasting
- Autophagy: What We Know (Fasting and Metabolism)By Dr. Frank Sabatino Your body cells contain a number of parts that perform a variety of functions, including energy production, protein synthesis and cellular repair, to maintain the tapestry of homeostasis and survival. Within every cell, there is a unique recycling/repair system that depends on a microscopic organ, the lysosome, that has a highly… Read more: Autophagy: What We Know (Fasting and Metabolism)
- Food Addiction: Is It Real? A Physician’s PerspectiveBy Dr. Frank Sabatino When you consider the prevalence of heart, lung, liver and brain damage/disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes generated by the compulsive abuse of alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, meat, dairy, salt, sugar, processed oils and processed junk food , addiction is arguably the most significant cause of disability, disease and death. Having some… Read more: Food Addiction: Is It Real? A Physician’s Perspective
- Sarcopenia and Strength: How to Maintain Muscle with Exercise and Plant ProteinBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Sarcopenia is the combined loss of skeletal muscle mass, function, and strength that can progress at a rate of almost 1% muscle loss per year after the age of 50. As a result, muscle strength can decline 50 percent in older adults, with as much as a 30 percent loss of… Read more: Sarcopenia and Strength: How to Maintain Muscle with Exercise and Plant Protein
- Longevity Secrets from the World’s Healthiest CulturesBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Following research that identified a high concentration of centenarians in a specific region of Sardinia, Italy, which was marked on a map in blue ink as hotspot of longevity, Dan Buettner and his team from National Geographic identified four other “Blue Zones” of long-lived people in Okinawa, Japan, the Nicoya peninsula… Read more: Longevity Secrets from the World’s Healthiest Cultures
- Taming Inflammation: The Root of Lifestyle DiseaseBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Healing in all living things is a ceaseless, biological process that is as constant as the daily sunrise, or the earth turning on its axis. This process is supported by your appropriation of basic lifestyle requirements including whole plant nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, proper hydration, sunlight, emotional support, and stress… Read more: Taming Inflammation: The Root of Lifestyle Disease
- The Plant-Exclusive Prescription for Type-2 DiabetesBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Plants capture the energy of the sun and produce glucose in plant carbohydrates that feeds the energy factories of your cells (mitochondria) to satisfy your energy needs. This is especially important for your brain which is just 2% of your body weight but demands 20% of your energy. However, blood sugar… Read more: The Plant-Exclusive Prescription for Type-2 Diabetes
- The Protein Myth: Getting Strong on PlantsBy Dr. Frank Sabatino When European chemists in the 19th century first used the Greek word proteios, meaning “of the first importance”, to label protein, this nutrient became the primary nutritional obsession and concern. Unfortunately we have all been sold the dangerous, unscientific lie that huge amounts of protein, primarily from animal sources, are necessary… Read more: The Protein Myth: Getting Strong on Plants
- Healing Without Oil: Why Cooking Methods MatterBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Fat is an essential macronutrient of any healthy diet providing 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories per gram for protein and carbohydrates. Therefore, it is easy to consume excessive calories when eating high-fat foods and oils that are so common in the animal-based, highly processed diets consumed by so many.… Read more: Healing Without Oil: Why Cooking Methods Matter
- Can Heart Disease Really Be Reversed with Food?By Dr. Frank Sabatino Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of men and women in the US, accounting for 20-30% of all fatalities. Shockingly, autopsies on teenagers and young adults, that have died from other causes, revealed widespread damage and blockage of blood vessels to the heart (coronary artery disease) already existing in this… Read more: Can Heart Disease Really Be Reversed with Food?
- Lowering Blood Pressure Naturally- The Whole Plant Food WayBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Adequate blood pressure (BP) is essential for blood to reach every cell and organ of your body and provide oxygen that is necessary for healthy function. This is not a small feat when you consider that blood has to routinely traverse approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels that is equivalent to… Read more: Lowering Blood Pressure Naturally- The Whole Plant Food Way
- 4 Keys for Successfully Transitioning to a Healthier LifestyleBy Dr. Frank Sabatino With all of the media attention on health nowadays, you’d think we’d all have a pretty good idea which lifestyle choices promote optimal health and weight loss: eating better, moving more, sleeping more, drinking more water, and reducing stress. However, there is often a big gap between the intellectual understanding of… Read more: 4 Keys for Successfully Transitioning to a Healthier Lifestyle
- Taming Inflammation: The Root of Lifestyle DiseaseBy Dr. Frank Sabatino Healing in all living things is a ceaseless, biological process that is as constant as the daily sunrise, or the earth turning on its axis. This process is supported by your appropriation of basic lifestyle requirements including whole plant nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, proper hydration, sunlight, emotional support, and stress… Read more: Taming Inflammation: The Root of Lifestyle Disease
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