The Doctor's Farmacy With Mark Hyman, M.d.

Fasting: Hype Or Ultimate Health Hack? | This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, Paleovalley, and Cozy Earth There’s been a lot of buzz about fasting in recent years, but sometimes it can be hard to tell a true health-promoting practice from a trend that lacks any real science behind it. Well I’m here to tell you today that fasting falls into the first category, with plenty of proven benefits to optimize health and slow the symptoms of aging. Fasting also does more than change the physical body. It’s estimated that 30% of our thoughts are about our next meal. That’s a lot of time and energy wrapped up in food, and fasting can help us regain control of ourselves, our minds, and so much more.  On today’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m thrilled to sit down with my good friend and an expert on fasting, Dave Asprey. Dave is the founder and Chairman of Bulletproof 360, a high-performance coffee and food company, and creator of the widely-popular Bulletproof Coffee. He is a three-time New York Times

In this special episode, you will hear a sneak peek into episode 6 of my new docu-series, Longevity Roadmap. In this episode, we discuss using food as medicine. We’ll talk about eating to prevent and beat disease, as well as all the superfoods that we recommend to enhance healthspan. Learn more and sign up to watch the Longevity Roadmap docu-series at longevityfilm.com In the Longevity Roadmap docuseries, we will walk you through the latest research on longevity, healthspan, and how to live better, longer. We also dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Each episode will take on a specific focus to help you understand the diseases of aging and what Functional Medicine teaches us about prevention, testing, nutrition, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panic Attacks: Biology or Psychology | This episode is sponsored by ButcherBox and Dr. Hyman’s Sleep Master Class   We are living in an age of anxiety; and we know that stress wreaks havoc on our health in so many ways, physiologically, emotionally, and mentally. For many people of all ages, stress can lead to anxiety and debilitating panic attacks. While conventional medicine typically treats anxiety and panic attacks as a diagnosis, Functional Medicine views anxiety and panic attacks as symptoms and seeks to get to the root cause underlying these issues. In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. George Papaicolaou to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to treating panic attacks. They explore the range of physiological considerations they explore when treating patients who are experiencing panic attacks, as well as how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma can be treated to reduce anxiety and eliminate panic attacks. George Papanicolaou is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopat

In this special episode, you will hear a sneak peek into episode 5 of my new docu-series, Longevity Roadmap. In this episode, we explore brain health by looking at how to prevent cognitive decline and optimize brain function. Learn more and sign up to watch the Longevity Roadmap docu-series at longevityfilm.com In the Longevity Roadmap docuseries, we will walk you through the latest research on longevity, healthspan, and how to live better, longer. We also dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Each episode will take on a specific focus to help you understand the diseases of aging and what Functional Medicine teaches us about prevention, testing, nutrition, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode, you will hear a sneak peek into episode 4 of my new docu-series, Longevity Roadmap. In this episode, we examine all things hormones, muscle, and bones. We can take steps today to manage the changes that come with aging and remain strong and resilient. Learn more and sign up to watch the Longevity Roadmap docu-series at longevityfilm.com In the Longevity Roadmap docuseries, we will walk you through the latest research on longevity, healthspan, and how to live better, longer. We also dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Each episode will take on a specific focus to help you understand the diseases of aging and what Functional Medicine teaches us about prevention, testing, nutrition, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode, you will hear a sneak peek into episode 3 of my new docu-series, Longevity Roadmap. In this episode, we delve into cancer. While conventional medicine is critical in cancer treatment, there is so much more that can be done to grow a healthy inner garden and prevent disease. Learn more and sign up to watch the Longevity Roadmap docu-series at longevityfilm.com In the Longevity Roadmap docuseries, we will walk you through the latest research on longevity, healthspan, and how to live better, longer. We also dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Each episode will take on a specific focus to help you understand the diseases of aging and what Functional Medicine teaches us about prevention, testing, nutrition, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode, you will hear a sneak peek into episode 2 of my new docu-series, Longevity Roadmap. In this episode we’ll discuss the biggest killer of our time: cardiovascular disease. There is so much misinformation out there about what causes cardiovascular disease. We’ll talk about innovative testing and recommendations around prevention. Learn more and sign up to watch the Longevity Roadmap docu-series at longevityfilm.com In the Longevity Roadmap docuseries, we will walk you through the latest research on longevity, healthspan, and how to live better, longer. We also dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Each episode will take on a specific focus to help you understand the diseases of aging and what Functional Medicine teaches us about prevention, testing, nutrition, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Changing Our Beliefs Changes Our Life: Discover How | This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, Athletic Greens, and Four Sigmatic A belief is a statement about reality that we believe to be absolutely true—but that doesn’t mean that it is. A belief may be holding us back from reaching our goals and feeling truly content and we may not even be conscious that we have it. I’ve experienced how powerful it can be to recognize limiting beliefs and do the work to change them. I knew that I had traumatic experiences as a child that impacted me as an adult, but I had no idea how deeply they were affecting me. Working with a coach helped me identify the root of the belief (similar to the Functional Medicine approach to health) so that I could see the pattern and begin reframing what I know to be true.  I’m so excited that my coach and good friend Shelly Lefkoe is today’s podcast guest. Shelly is a co-founder and Vice President of Lefkoe Institute, a San Francisco Bay Area firm whose mission is “To significantly

In this special episode, you will hear a sneak peek into episode 1 of my new docu-series, Longevity Roadmap. In the Longevity Roadmap docu-series, we’ll dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Learn more and sign up to watch the Longevity Roadmap docu-series at longevityfilm.com In the Longevity Roadmap docuseries, we will walk you through the latest research on longevity, healthspan, and how to live better, longer. We also dive into the science behind preventing the most prevalent diseases of aging, and we’ll talk about what it means to build a resilient body. Each episode will take on a specific focus to help you understand the diseases of aging and what Functional Medicine teaches us about prevention, testing, nutrition, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wired and Tired: Fixing Adrenal Burnout | This episode is brought to you by Starseed and Joovv You have likely heard the term “adrenal fatigue.” We commonly associate this term with the feelings of extreme fatigue, hormonal dysregulation, and other physical symptoms that can occur from chronic stress. More accurately, we can look to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis for the cause of these discomforts. If you have chronic stress, your adrenals get beat up, and your energy plummets and it becomes difficult to manage your life. You could feel tired and wired, all at the same time. All these are clues that you could have an imbalance of your HPA axis. In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the signs of HPA axis dysfunction and how to support your HPA axis to reverse burnout. They also share patient cases that they have treated. Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practi

The Solution To Food Waste | This episode is brought to you by Find My Formula Food waste is one of the largest problems of our time. In this US alone, upwards of 40% of food is wasted. Sadly, because of quality standards that emphasize appearance, spoilage, transportation, and other challenges, the majority of that is nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables that should form the bulk of our diet, and that many people have little access to in the first place.  And the issue of food waste is farther-reaching than you might think. It’s an incredible waste of resources—the water, land, energy, labor, and capital needed to grow it are all wasted, too, when food is thrown away. Plus, food waste is a major contributor to climate change in several ways. But there are also many things we can do to turn around the issue of food waste and the way it impacts our climate and food security.  Dr. Hyman discussed some of the solutions with Walter Robb, former CEO of Whole Foods Market. Walter has a long and varied entrepreneuri

How to Make Behavior Change Stick | This episode is sponsored by Bioptimizers, Paleovalley, and Athletic Greens We’ve all been there—changing an old habit or creating a new one can be challenging. And we often incorporate our lack of success at habit change into part of our identity and feeling bad about ourselves. But when we use science to understand the secrets to lasting behavior change, it’s clear there are ways to overcome the struggle and get the results we want. One of those secrets is building off of small changes over time. I did this myself, by doing pushups while I waited for the shower to heat up I went from being able to do one to now doing 50! Today, I talk to Dr. BJ Fogg about the science of lasting behavior change and the success he’s seen in those who’ve used his system.   Dr. Fogg is a behavior scientist with deep experience in innovation and teaching. For the past 20 years at Stanford University, he has directed a research lab and he also teaches his models and methods in graduate seminars

A Functional Medicine Approach to Osteoporosis | This episode is sponsored by ButcherBox and Dr. Hyman’s Sleep Master Class We have been led to believe that drinking milk is the key to bone health. Unfortunately, the prevailing myth that drinking milk as children builds up a calcium bank that helps us avoid osteoporosis and fracture later in life is simply not true. Our bone health is determined by a number of things including what we eat, our stress and activity levels, our muscle mass, and other factors that contribute to the delicate balance between bone build-up and bone breakdown. Unfortunately, osteoporosis is a very common and life-threatening problem, it is also highly underdiagnosed. This is part of the reason why prevention is so important when it comes to osteoporosis.  In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Todd LePine to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to osteoporosis. They get into how chronic inflammation acts as one of the main drivers of osteoporosis, why both bone density an

Why Small Stressors Can Actually Be Good For Us | This episode is sponsored by Uqora We know that chronic, long-term stress can wreak havoc on our health. However, short-term and/or mild stressors can have the exact opposite effect. For instance, when you practice resistance training by lifting heavy weights and inflicting damage on your muscles, your body responds by repairing the damaged fibers, thus creating bigger and stronger muscles. This is called hormesis, a phenomenon that demonstrates the beneficial effects of low-level stressors. A similar process called xenohormesis also occurs in plants, making them stronger and richer in phytochemicals that are good for us. Dr. Hyman recently spoke about these topics in his conversations with Ben Greenfield and Dr. Frank Lipman. Ben Greenfield is a human performance consultant, speaker, and New York Times bestselling author of 13 books, including the wildly popular titles, Beyond Training and Boundless. A former collegiate tennis, water polo, and volleyball play

How To Eat Smarter | This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, Athletic Greens, and Simple Mills Our bodies are built and maintained by our food choices; we literally are what we eat. Unfortunately, that means the majority of our country is made of ultra-processed food-like substances that create disease. The good news, though, is that small dietary changes can have huge payoffs in a short amount of time.  My guest on today’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy has experienced the dramatic impacts of using food as medicine firsthand. At just 15, he broke his hip simply from running because his bones were so brittle from a diet void of nutrients. At 20, he was diagnosed with degenerative bone and disk disease. After just 9 months of revamping his diet to focus on whole foods, that diagnosis was completely reversed. Shawn Stevenson is here today to tell us how food affects our bodies on the deepest level and how we can eat smarter.   Shawn Stevenson is the author of the international bestselling book Sleep S

How To Treat Erectile Dysfunction Without The Little Blue Pill | This episode is sponsored by ButcherBox and Dr. Hyman’s Sleep Master Class Erectile dysfunction is a very common problem among men. In fact, 10% of men under the age of 40 have erectile dysfunction and 60% of men experience erectile dysfunction by the age of 70. When Viagra, commonly referred to as the little blue pill, hit the market in the late 1990s, it opened the door for a conversation about this prevalent issue. And while traditional medicine has focused on targeting erectile dysfunction as a local problem, Functional Medicine recognizes that it is actually a systemic issue, often brought about by our ultra-processed, high-starch and sugar diets. In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. George Papaicolaou to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to diagnosing and treating erectile dysfunction, and why it is so important to get to the root cause of this issue. George Papanicolaou is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Osteopat

How To Reduce Stress And Improve Wellbeing | This episode is brought to you by Find My Formula Stress is almost synonymous with our modern lifestyles. We experience external stressors from our jobs, family responsibilities, financial worries, and many other places, then compound them with unhealthy lifestyle choices. The result is an epidemic of stress and increased risk for chronic diseases. Most of us know that things such as eating well, getting quality sleep, exercise, and mediation are all effective ways to reduce and manage stress, but the value of pursuing the things that make us happy and fulfilled is a less commonly cited way to reduce stress.  Late last year, Dr. Hyman sat down with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee to discuss how making time for the things that bring us joy gives us more resilience against stress and fatigue and an improved psychological outlook. They also share practical solutions and simple interventions to help you destress and reset your life, and how implementing small changes to your rou

The Functional Medicine Approach To Treating COVID-19 And Post-COVID Syndrome | This episode is sponsored by Bioptimizers, Paleovalley, and Cozy Earth COVID has taught us a lot over the last year, and continues to do so every day that we battle this pandemic. We’ve seen what an overburdened medical system looks like and been faced with the reality of social distancing for many months now. Perhaps one of the most important lessons we have learned, though, is that a body that’s already suffering from chronic disease has far greater risks of COVID severity and even death. In the US, where the majority of people are metabolically unhealthy, we’ve seen our population faring much worse than other countries against this virus. Here, there are 500 COVID deaths per million people (at the time of this episode recording). In China, that number is 3 per million. Look at that alongside the 42% obesity rate here and the 2.6% rate there. COVID has shown us just how out of balance we are as a nation and how our baseline of d

Getting Rid Of Cold Sores And Canker Sores | This episode is sponsored by Thrive Market and Apeel While there is a difference between cold sores and canker sores, they are similar in that common occurrence of either is an indication that something is out of balance in the body. Most of us have had canker sores at one time or another. They usually occur at the side of your mouth, by your cheek, inside of your cheek, or underneath your tongue, and they can be quite painful. As opposed to cold sores, canker sores are not infections. Cold sores, however, are contagious, often forming inside your mouth, near your teeth, or on the lips; they result from herpes simplex virus.  In this episode, Dr. Hyman sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss what frequent recurrence of cold sore or canker sores might be indicating, and how they treat patients experiencing these issues. Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practi

How Your Emotional Vocabulary Can Affect Your Health | This episode is sponsored by Starseed Having a greater grasp on emotional understanding correlates to increased happiness and satisfaction, along with better management of stress, while a lack of emotional balance has been linked to poorer outcomes with physical health issues. But how can we achieve emotional balance when we don’t fully understand what our emotions are telling us? Earlier this year, Dr. Hyman spoke to Susan David about how accurately labeling our emotions with a great degree of granularity can help us better understand our emotions, and know what to do about them. He also spoke with Jay Shetty about how expanding our emotional vocabulary can improve our relationship with ourselves and others. Susan David, Ph.D. is one of the world’s leading management thinkers and an award-winning Harvard Medical School psychologist. Her new #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Emotional Agility, describes the psychological skills critical to thriving