Pharmer Wellness

Written by Dr. Susan Blum

For those of you who know me, either personally or professionally, you know that Mind-Body-Spirit self care strategies are at the core of what I practice and preach for preventing and treating chronic disease.  I meditate every morning and spend lots of time in nature. But more than this, I teach others about how stress affects your health and offer tools to do something about it.

By Dr. Susan Blum

Studies have shown that by following a very low-calorie food plan with very specific nutritional rules — a 5-Day Fasting Cycle — repeated every month for 3 months in a row, can help you achieve lasting weight loss, a boosted metabolism and improved blood markers of disease and aging.

By Susan Blum, MD

If you have gas or bloating after you eat, or if you experience constipation and/or loose stools, or any type of intestinal discomfort, you have a problem with how your gut is functioning. While this is commonly labeled irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, the diagnosis doesn’t tell you why you’re having this problem.

By Susan Blum, MD

Are you concerned about your exposure to mercury from the food you are eating? If you eat fish at all, then you should be. This can be confusing, but is very important because mercury can cause autoimmune disease and other health-related problems. That is why I decided to dedicate our April newsletter to this topic…to shed some light on this issue and to help you decide what to eat, and what to do to protect yourself from this environmental toxin.

Written by Dr. Susan Blum

Probiotics are living bacteria normally found in the human digestive tract that are usually ingested to improve the quality and quantity of the gut’s beneficial bacteria. One of the goals of taking a probiotic is to shift the population of gut bacteria toward one that is more healing and low inflammatory. But most people don’t know that probiotics do a lot more than just influence the population of the microbes that live in your gut.

By Dr. Susan Blum

One thing I’ve noticed when talking to patients is that, despite the prevalence of the word “organic,” many people don’t actually know what it means or are confused.  Organic produce is grown without conventional pesticides/herbicides, harsh chemicals or bioengineering while organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy come from animals that have been allowed to graze on pastures, are fed 100% organic feed and are not given growth hormones or antibiotics. As a result, going organic helps you avoid toxins, hormones and antibiotics which can negatively impact and disrupt the body in several ways.