In the past month’s series on nutrition, I explained how the manner in which we eat can affect us as much as our food choices can. We looked at the vital roles that cooking and chewing play in digestion, and the importance of eating slowly…
This month’s theme is nutrition, and I started the series by explaining that, while we have greatly improved humans’ odds of surviving childhood, we haven’t made as much progress in prolonging the lives of older people. Old people tend to die of conditions that are…
Last week I wrote about the tremendous jump in average human life expectancy that occurred just in the last 200 years. It went from 30-something to 70-something. The thing is, this change was almost entirely due to a reduction in child mortality. If we compare…
When I sit down to write an article, I often feel like I’m having a conversation with you, the reader. Except that it’s a one-sided conversation, in which I never ask you about yourself and I just monopolize the whole exchange. So. . . how…
In this month’s series of articles on meditation, I’ve tried to be gentle on you. They say people can be motivated by the threat of a stick or the reward of a carrot, and I really want to believe the carrot works better than the…
Once upon a time, a woman stumbled upon a tarnished bronze oil lamp in her backyard. Hoping it was one of those genie lamps you hear so much about, she rubbed it. Sure enough, a genie popped out. “Hello,” said the genie. “As you’ve probably…
In case you’re wondering what’s the cause of all the buzz around the water cooler, well, people have been talking about The Borten Principle. I introduced it in last week’s newsletter, Meditation and the Lottery. Basically, it states that your decision to act (versus not…
Since it seems unlikely at this point that I will achieve stardom as a professional athlete, I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of other avenues to fame. So far, I’ve ruled out supervillain, porn star, politician, and jockey. One option that seems promising, however,…
January 31st is the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Wood Horse. In case you’ve already given up on your resolutions, you get another chance in a few days. Compared to the Year of the Water Snake we’re leaving behind,…
Most people’s health goals could be simplified to something like: a long life and the good health to enjoy it. And long life we have. The biggest-ever jump in life expectancy, which occurred from around the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s, can be mostly…
In the tropical forests of East Asia (and now Central America) grows an intensely aromatic spice in a small green pod. Let’s see if you can guess what it is. It is a key ingredient in chai and Indian cuisine. It’s used in baking in…
This is a time of year when the dream of world peace comes up more than usual. Maybe, despite the ever growing array of plastic gift options and people stabbing each other to be first in the door to Walmart on Black Friday, we still…
In parts one and two of this series (click on the links to read them), I introduced a way of understanding foods, herbs, and drugs based on how herbs are defined in sophisticated systems of herbal medicine. One end of the spectrum represents substances that are…
When my wife was a teenager, her stepmother one day advised her that if she didn’t have anything nice to say to someone, she could instead try saying, thank you. Not long thereafter, my wife directed some teenage angst at her stepmom, who got red…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) Rather than give you a nice cohesive report on a single health topic, I decided this month to write a bit about a number of different trendy foods. If you’re a foodie, a…
(Originally published as a newsletter for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) There is an understated yellow flower called Taraxacum – AKA dandelion – which can be found nearly everywhere in the world – Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, and southern Africa….
(Originally published as a four part series for The Dragontree Holistic Day Spa) Part One For the great majority of human history, most people cooked all of their own food and they always knew exactly what was in it. Then, in the twentieth century, our…
As Daoists in ancient China carefully observed the natural world, they came to identify five major energies, called the Five Elements, which preside over all the tangible and intangible facets of our lives. They saw that the substances and dynamics that exist in nature also…
(This was originally a series of ten articles written for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) There is a saying about aging in Chinese Medicine: “Yang to yang and yin to yin.” To understand this, you must first know that the terms yin and yang have many…
(This article originally appeared in About Face Magazine) “I never had allergies before I moved to the Pacific Northwest.” Unfortunately, it’s a statement I’ve heard dozens of times. Our perennially lush, green valley is like a grab bag of different kinds of pollen and mold…
(Originally published as an article for Imbue Pain Relief Patch) Here’s a test: Stand with one foot directly in front of the other, heel to toe, like you just got pulled over to do a sobriety test. Close your eyes. Try not to wobble or…