Dr. James Jacobs, MDVIP

During office visits you may have heard me mention triglycerides, a type of blood fat. They often take a backseat to cholesterol, but they can raise your risk for heart disease. Here’s what you need to know.

How to Lower Triglycerides | MDVIP Triglycerides are a lipid that can increase your risk of heart disease. Here’s what you need to know about triglycerides and how you can lower them.

You’re probably familiar with the typical risk factors of heart disease – high blood pressure, unhealthy blood fats, obesity, stress, poor nutrition, sleep deprivation and sedentary lifestyle. But a commonly overlooked risk factor is oral health. Learn more about the heart health – dental health connection from Alan Reisinger, MD, FACP, MDVIP associate medical director.

Bad Teeth & Heart Disease | MDVIP Having bad teeth has been linked to heart disease. It is important to practice good dental hygiene and schedule regular check ups with your dentist.

Unhealthy cholesterol numbers raise your risk for heart disease. But don’t assume your heart is healthy because your total cholesterol is below 200. Half of patients with ideal cholesterol have an underlying heart condition. Read why there’s more to heart health than just cholesterol from Dr. Alan Reisinger, MDVIP associate medical director.

There’s So Much More to Heart Disease than Just Cholesterol Numbers | MDVIP The year I graduated from medical school, 1982, a brave new world of cardiology was just beginning. Researchers conducting a trial of the drug lovastatin discovered it lowered cholesterol in a small group of patients with a genetic predisposition for dangerously high cholesterol. Patients with this....

A few of my patients have IBS – a condition that affects the large intestine, causing abdominal pain and digestive issues. For years I warned IBS patients to avoid gluten; however, new evidence suggests gluten might not be a trigger – it’s FODMAP foods. Here’s what you need to know.

MDVIP | Gluten May Not Be A Trigger For Your IBS Irritable Bowel Syndrome is triggered by certain foods. Discover a study that showed gluten might not be a trigger & learn which foods you should try to avoid.

Your gut health has a connection to your overall health. When I refer to your gut health, I am talking how well your body absorbs nutrients, remains disease free, keeps a strong immune system and maintains a thriving, balanced composition of microorganisms. But the real key is the microorganisms. Here’s why.

Science-Based Ways to Improve Gut Health | MDVIP Many things you can do to improve your general overall health and wellbeing are also proven to positively impact gut health. These include lifestyle efforts like getting regular exercise, eating less sugar, reducing stress and quitting smoking. But there are additional specific things you can do for...

You might have heard me use the terms probiotics and prebiotics. They are a complex carbohydrate and healthy bacteria, respectively, and help foster healthy gut microbiome. And while you may be tempted to use daily over-the-counter probiotic and prebiotic supplements, your diet is the best source of both. Add these foods to your shopping list.

Your Guide to Probiotics and Prebiotics in Food | MDVIP Our gastrointestinal tract needs probiotics and prebiotics to create an environment where communities of beneficial bacteria can flourish. And while you may be tempted to use daily over-the-counter probiotic and prebiotic supplements, your diet is the best source of both. Probiotics Probiotic foods....

I regularly preach to my patients the importance of whole foods. Yes, I realize most people don’t have the time to make homemade bread and pasta. But keeping your diet as minimally processed as possible can make a difference in your health. To motivate you to limit your processed foods, here’s a detailed look at what’s in them.

Are You Aware of What's In Your Processed Foods? | MDVIP Explore the pros and cons of processed foods and how they can affect your health. Learn what to look out for in your packaged foods and what to avoid.

Below I'm sharing Kimmie's post focusing on sleep. I want to highlight four thoughts to go along with the post:
1. Caffeine. Be wary of potential lingering effects of caffeine. For the average person 1/2 of the caffeine consumed is still around 5-6 hours later and for some that can stretch to 9-10 hours undermining your sleep despite feeling no stimulant effect. You may need to cut off caffeine by 2PM or even noon.
2. Alcohol. Alcohol destroys REM sleep. While some perceive the sensation of alcohol helping to quiet the mind or just simply think it is not affecting sleep there is a great chance it is working against the restorative value of your sleep.
3. Get Help. Cleveland Clinic's "Go! to Sleep" program is a 6 week $40 "Improve Your Sleep - Starting Tonight" program for individuals. https://shop.clevelandclinicwellness.com/products/go-to-sleep-online
4. If you any of the "z" drugs for sleeping (zolpidem, eszopiclone, zaleplon) there may be no greater priority for your brain heath than to put in the work to get off of these sleep medications.

Each week I have been sharing recommendations from Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai in their book, "The Alzheimer's Solution". In that book the Sherzai's discuss the NEURO plan for preventing cognitive decline. So far we have focused on:
N - Nutrition
E - Exercise
U - Unwind
And today I want to discuss...
R - Restore
Restorative sleep is imperative not only for brain health but for overall body health. Those who routinely get less than 7 hours of sleep a night are at a higher risk for cognitive decline, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and earlier death. Studies have shown that a single all-nighter increases beta amyloid plaque in the brain which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's patients. When we sleep our glymphatic system in our brain washes our brain and clears toxic wastes. While sleeping our brain also encodes and files our memories. It has been shown that getting 7-8 hours of restorative sleep a night is optimal for brain and overall body health. Eliminating factors that deter sleep and practicing good sleep hygiene can help us achieve this goal as we work towards improved health.
Here are some tips for improving sleep:
1. Establish a regular sleep schedule. Getting up at the same time and going to bed at the same time each day helps your body get into a regular routine.
2. Get 1-2 hours of natural light during the first half of the day. Natural light exposure helps to set our circadian rhythm.
3. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and ni****ne for several hours before bedtime. All three of these substances interfere with sleep.
4. Don't eat for at least 2-3 hours before bedtime. Eating raises your body temperature and interferes with your bodies natural process of lowering body temperature before sleep.
5. Get regular exercise, but don't exercise within 2 hours of going to bed. Regular, daily exercise helps the body relax and sleep better. However, exercising right before bed raises your body temperature and again, interferes with your body's process of lowering body temperature before bed. So get your workouts in earlier in the day.
6. Stop using your electronic devices for at least an hour before bedtime. The blue light from our devices interferes with our sleep cycle and tricks our brain into thinking it's still daytime.
7. Set up a good sleep environment. Eliminate as much light as you can and keep your room cool. Consider using black out shades, a sleep mask, and lowering the thermostat.
8. Limit your intake of saturated fat and sugar and increase your fiber. It has been shown that those who consume diets high in saturated fat and sugar and low in fiber have more sleep struggles than those who avoid highly processed foods and sugars.
Sleep is an area that many of us neglect but it is one of the foundational layers we must have in place if we want to age well and strive for optimal health.

Kimmie has a nice focus derived from the authors of “The Alzheimer’s Solution.”

If there's one diagnosis that American's may fear hearing more than any other, it's Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's affects 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 and half of people over the age of 85. If the rate of growth isn't curtailed it could collapse our health care system. There are several myths regarding Alzheimer's Disease. One is that Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are the natural course of aging and there's not much you can do about it. The second is that Alzheimer's is a genetic disease...if you have the genes, then you'll get the disease. Both of those statements are false. While there currently is not a drug that can cure Alzheimer's, much research has been done to examine how our lifestyle affects cognitive decline and it has been discovered that 90% of Alzheimer's cases can be prevented through lifestyle changes! Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai are neurologists and scientists and have been researching Alzheimer's for years. As they've discovered that lifestyle plays a very key role in the prevention of cognitive decline, they have developed the NEURO plan. Each letter of the word NEURO stands for an important factor in preserving brain health. Over the next 5 weeks I'll highlight one of those factors here.
The first letter, N, stands for Nutrition.
Many researchers have shown that eating meat is bad for your brain. A whole food, plant-based diet rich in vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, and healthy fats is what the brain requires to thrive. The Sherzai's highlight the Neuro 9 which are 9 foods crucial for maintaining and improving your cognitive health and should be included in our diets daily. Those 9 foods are:
Dark leafy greens
Whole grains (such as oats, quinoa, farro, brown rice)
Seeds (especially flax, chia, and h**p)
Beans and legumes
Berries
Nuts (especially walnuts)
Cruciferous Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage...)
Tea (unsweetened green, white, black...)
Herbs and Spices (turmeric, ginger, sage, saffron, oregano...)

We should also make efforts to eliminate those foods which are detrimental to brain health. Those are highly processed foods, foods that are high in processed sugars, high in saturated fats, and high in salt. If this is starting to sound familiar it's because the same diet that is good for heart health is good for brain health. Turns out that what's good for your heart is good for your brain! One great way to get many of these brain healthy foods is to make a big salad for lunch. This brain healthy lunch includes dark leafy greens, beets, edamame, cauliflower, walnuts, sunflower seeds, blueberries, and green tea! I feel smarter already!

This week at our Ladies Planted Meeting we learned all about the benefits of eating fermented foods. The typical American lifestyle wreaks havoc on the gut. Eating too much processed food, consuming too little fiber from plants, drinking excessive alcohol, eating too much sugar, taking antibiotics regularly, and lack of exercise all cause a deterioration in our gut microbiome. 70% of the immune system is located in the gut microbiome and a dysbiosis of the gut leads to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. We want to do things that restore the balance in our gut. We can do this in several ways:
Eat a whole food, plant based diet.
Get plenty of exercise.
Limit the use of alcohol, sugar, and antibiotics.
And eat fermented foods regularly.
Eating fermented foods supplies your gut with healthy bacteria. Taking a probiotic supplement will not give you the same benefits as eating fermented foods. For one reason, it's hard to keep a probiotic viable in a capsule, and secondly, a capsule may have one strain of probiotic and there are trillions of healthy microorganisms. Fermented foods contain a variety of strains.
At our meeting we sampled many of the fermented foods.
Some of these include kombucha, kefir, yogurt, miso soup, tempeh, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, and kimchi. Be adventurous this week and do your gut a favor by trying a new fermented food! Mark your calendars for our next Planted Meeting on 2/28 when we will discuss Alzheimer's and a plant-based diet.

A new year, a new you! Isn't that how the saying goes? Many of us begin the new year with admirable intentions of improving our health, so we start a new diet, or we join a gym. But often by the end of January our motivation has fizzled and we give up on our goals and decide it's not worth the effort. How can we stay motivated to accomplish our health goals? Well one way is to start with small, achievable goals and build on those. One simple change you should consider making this month is to choose healthy snacks. Instead of trying to revamp your entire diet start with this small change. Every time you eat a snack choose a fruit or vegetable. An unprocessed, whole food fruit or vegetable! No, potato chips don't count. There are so many yummy fruits! I try to look for a new fruit I haven't tried every couple weeks. One of my favorite new fruits is shiranui, also known as dekopon or sumo citrus. The shiranui is very similar to an orange but juicy and more tangy. I love it! This week I picked up two new fruits to try. The Korean pear and the pomelo. The pomelo is the largest citrus fruit and similar to a grapefruit. I'll let you know what I think! See if you can begin your road to better health this year with this small goal of eating fruits and vegetables for a snack.