Posts by Sara Szal MD
Is Chocolate Healthy?
I love chocolate not only because of the taste, but because it’s a superfood. It’s functional medicine for your DNA. Cacao (raw cacao powder is made by cold-pressing unroasted cocoa beans) has nearly twice the antioxidants found in red wine and almost triple the antioxidants of green tea. Most people know that dark chocolate contains…
Read MoreFeatured on London's Sheerluxe: A Dr.'s Top Tips for Aging
This interview with Dr. Sara Gottfried appeared on the London women’s website Sheerluxe on March 15, 2017. Here is an excerpt. ~~~~~ Renowned hormone expert Dr. Sara Gottfried knows a thing or two about aging well – the Harvard-graduate has 20 years of experience as a gynecologist, and several years ago took her health into…
Read MoreDr. Sara's Book Review: Top 10 Health Books
I’m so pleased that my latest book, Younger, made it to the New York Times bestseller list. Likewise, I love recommending other recently-released innovative books about health. Here are my latest top ten. 1. White Hot Truth: Has your self help become self criticism? A wise and hilarious exploration of the conflicts between spiritual aspiration and…
Read MoreHow to Overcome PMS and Painful Periods
You’re crampy and crabby, bloated and bothered. You sense that it’s that time of the month again, and whoops! – you better buy tampons. Many of us view our periods as a routine nuisance. For some, the premenstrual and menstrual symptoms are particularly daunting: sore breasts, extreme mood swings, insatiable cravings, migraines, heavy blood flow,…
Read MoreDo You Know Which Foods Make You Younger? And Which Ones Age You?
Five years ago, I found out my body was in a failure state as measured by my telomeres, the protective caps on chromosomes that reflect how fast you are aging. As with many stories of initiation, my failing telomeres started me on an unplanned journey of surrender and healing. You may wonder what my telomeres…
Read MoreDe-Stress to Look Younger: Top Health Apps That Beat Plastic Surgery
Cathy fit an all-too-typical patient profile: beyond stressed, cursing at the bathroom scale, and spending far too much money on toxic beauty products. During our second visit, Cathy complained that the repercussions were showing up around her face with sagging, wrinkled skin. Then she dropped the bomb: “I’m thinking about getting a little work done.”…
Read MoreViva Las Vagus: How Vagal Tone Impacts Your Health (and 10 Ways to Improve It)
Sometimes I wonder how long I’ve had a problem with my vagus nerve. Years? Decades? Vagus means “wanderer.” This nerve—the longest one in your body—wanders all over your body to important organs such as the brain, neck, ears, tongue, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, kidney, spleen, and reproductive organs in women. The vagus…
Read More5 Secrets to Turn Back the Clock
Jennifer was a forty-four-year-old patient who arrived in my office feeling defeated, worn out, and “older than her years” as she put it. As a third-shift nurse who worked grueling twelve-hour nights – frequently picking up overtime – the stressful struggle to balance sleep, two kids, and an unemployed husband drained her sanity, and took…
Read MoreHow Stress Harms Your Health and Aging
Mary was a thirty-nine-year-old patient who visited me complaining she felt burned out. Her sixty-hour workweeks left her beyond fatigued, with frequent headaches, miserable colds, and raging tension that cut into her sleep. On top of that, she confessed that lately life had become meaningless, which she attributed to an early midlife crisis, and her…
Read More7 Anti-Aging Benefits You Gain from Consistent Exercise
In a previous blog, I wrote about my fifty-year-old patient Gigi who complained about feeling “doughy” and stiff. Like many middle-aged female patients, Gigi found that maintaining lean muscle mass was increasingly difficult as she got older. I get it: I find it hard too. And sometimes I need a pithy list of why I…
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