The Doctor's Farmacy with Mark Hyman, M.D.

When it comes to medicine, many of us want immediate results. What if just one dose of medicine could dramatically shift your perception, decreasing anxiety, depression, fear of death, addictive tendencies, and so much more? It might sound too good to be true, but the therapeutic use of psychedelics is showing us it’s possible. Now, I’m not talking about taking magic mushrooms at a Grateful Dead concert. The medicine used in psychedelic trials is created in a lab, carefully dosed for the patient, and administered in a specific setting with a trained guide who is present throughout the entire process. This highly controlled process can yield some pretty amazing results and we will be seeing much more science emerge on the safe use of psychedelics for a variety of disorders. This week on The Doctor’s Farmacy, Dr. Anthony Bossis joins me to elaborate on using psychedelics to expand our sensory abilities and relax our experience with death and illness. Anthony P. Bossis, Ph.D. conducts FDA-approved clinical trials in the reemerging field of psychedelic research. He is a clinical psychologist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine investigating the effects of psilocybin, a naturally occurring compound found in specific species of mushrooms.

These days, we hear a lot about fasting. Intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating, and water fasting are just some of the many terms being thrown around in support of better health. And we can’t forget about the high-fat, ketogenic, and low-carb approaches that are gaining in popularity as well. Which one is best? What does it all mean for our longevity, brain health, and overall wellness? My guest on this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy is here to sift through the terminology and confusion around fasting. Dr. Valter Longo is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of aging studies and related diseases. Known as a “Guru of Longevity,” Dr. Longo is currently Professor of Biogerontology and Biological Sciences and Director of the Institute of Longevity of the School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, as well as Director of the Oncology and Longevity Program at IFOM in Milan. He is also the Scientific Director of the Create Cures Foundation and the Valter Longo Foundation. Valter is the author of an extraordinary new book, The Longevity Diet. The culmination of 25 years of research on aging, nutrition, and disease across the globe, it provides an easy-to-understand, accessible and implementable road map to living well longer through improved nutrition.

Every time we eat, we have a chance to boost our brain function. In medical school, we’re taught the brain is immutable, that we can’t grow new brain cells or change the brain once dysfunction or injury has occurred. Now, we know that’s just not true. The decisions we make each and every day, like what we eat, how much sleep we get, and how often we move are all steps that can dramatically shift the health of the brain for the better. And there’s so much more we can do, too. Dr. David Perlmutter joins me on this week’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy to talk about an empowered approach to supporting the brain, starting with food first. Dr. Perlmutter is a board-certified neurologist and four-time New York Times best selling author. He serves on the Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and as a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease . His books include the #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain, The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs and Sugar, with over 1 million copies in print. He is the editor of the upcoming collection The Microbiome and the Brain that will be authored by top experts in the field and will be published in 2019 by CRC Press. Dr. Perlmutter’s new book, Brain Wash , co-written with Austin Perlmutter, MD, will be published in January 2020.

Our food and healthcare systems are broken; they are not serving public health and are even putting certain communities at a disproportionate risk. We are up against social, economic, environmental, and political dysfunctions that contribute to chronic disease. Heart disease, cancer, and stroke are the leading causes of death, and premature death at that, in the US. These diseases all have several risk factors in common, like smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet, which policy often views simply as personal choices. But you can’t make healthy choices if you don’t have healthy choices available. There are social and cultural inputs at play and many reasons we need to begin looking at health beyond the individual and on a community and population-based level. Today’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy is the perfect person to weigh-in on these issues. Dr. Sonia Angell is a Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), overseeing the Division of Prevention and Primary Care. Throughout her career, she has overseen nutrition-related policy initiatives, including restricting trans fat use in NYC restaurants, launching the National Salt Reduction Initiative, establishing food procurement nutrition standards for NYC government agencies, and establishing sodium warning labels in chain restaurants and expanding calorie labeling regulations.

A new study published in the medical journal JAMA says, ‘Eggs are bad,’ but are they really? In this episode, we take a look at the specifics of the study. This particular study is an observational study; it does not prove cause and effect. An ideal nutritional study would take 10,000 people and have them eat eggs for 20 years, then take another 10,000 people, and for the same time period, keep them from eating eggs to see what happens. Of course, this would be incredibly difficult and very expensive to do. This recent study surveyed 30,000 people over a 17 year time period, with each person completed one questionnaire about what they’ve been eating. During the time this study was conducted, eggs were considered bad. We were told not to eat eggs; to avoid cholesterol. So people who were eating eggs were likely people who weren’t otherwise health conscious. It doesn’t mean the eggs caused the heart disease.