My fantastic podcast host and producer, Danny Roddy, has decided to move on to greener pastures. He’s done an incredible job with the show and I’ve enjoyed our rapport, so I’ll miss him. I’m sure you will too.

This means I’m on the hunt for a new host/producer (the same person, ideally) for my podcast. Actually, for my internet radio show. I’ve finally decided on a new name for the program: Chris Kresser’s Revolution Health Radio.

Responsibilities will include:

• Soliciting and organizing questions for Q&A episodes
• Scheduling special guests
• Recording and producing the show
• Preparing the show notes

Candidates should be personable, passionate about “Paleo-ish” nutrition, experienced with audio production and available on Friday mornings at 8:00am Pacific time to record the show. It would be easier if you were on a Mac with GarageBand (that’s what I use to record my audio stream), and either have or be willing to obtain a decent quality mic.

This is not a paid position. It’s for someone who would enjoy the opportunity to discuss these topics with me and gain experience producing a show that has a global audience.

If you’d like to apply, please click here to contact me. Please include the following information:

• Your interest in and experience with Paleo-ish nutrition
• Your experience with audio production, especially Garage Band
• Any relevant experience behind a microphone or camera or working in media
• Confirm that you have the necessary equipment and are available at the designated time

I look forward to hearing from you!

I just wanted to give you all a quick update on the blog and podcast. As you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t been writing or publishing new episodes as regularly as I usually do. If you’ve guessed that has something to do with the recent birth of my daughter Sylvie, you’d be right.

I feel like I’m just now getting back in the saddle. The plan is to return to a more regular schedule for the podcast and blog. Starting next Tuesday, a new episode of the podcast will be published every other week. Blog articles will be published – for the most part – every other week on either Thursdays or Fridays.

Since I’ve retired The Healthy Skeptic name here on the blog, Danny and I are also planning to rename the podcast. We haven’t settled on a name yet (if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments section.) This won’t affect the feed or your subscription to it. One day you’ll just notice that it has a different graphic and name.

I’ve also got a couple of exciting projects in the works. It’s too early to say much about them, but I can give you a little hint. One is related to weight loss for those who’ve tried everything without success and the other is related to creating your own customized Paleo-type diet – rather than following a canned approach. I’ll keep you posted as they develop!

Happy Fall!

As a clinician, my primary goal is to help my patients. While I am fascinated by scientific theories, I am far more interested in whether those theories can be applied to practical solutions for the patients that I work with.

I feel grateful for this perspective, because I believe it helps me to keep an open mind and not get too attached to one theory or another. My patients are constantly teaching me that no matter how good a theory or hypothetical treatment is, real live people sometimes do not respond in the ways that textbooks or studies tell us they should.

When I first read Stephan Guyenet’s series on the role of food reward and palatability in fat gain, I was intrigued. As far as I know, it’s the only theory of weight regulation that can embrace and explain all of the other prevailing theories. For example, food reward can explain why both low-fat and low-carb diets can be effective for weight loss on a short-term basis, and provide insight into why they often fail over the long-term.

Another reason it appealed to me is that I have a number of patients that have tried numerous diets (low-carb, low-fat, Paleo, ketogenic, etc.), but still haven’t lost the weight they’d like to lose. I can’t help feeling curious about whether reducing reward might be of benefit to them. (Note: we will not be testing that particular hypothesis in this study. See below for details.)

Stephan has outlined a substantial body of evidence supporting the role of food reward/palatability in fat gain, and some suggesting that reducing it can be helpful for fat loss as well. But what we’re missing is a study evaluating the possibility that reducing food reward (without resorting to liquid diets) can be a practical fat loss strategy in free-living people.

To remedy this, Stephan and I designed a randomized, controlled food reward fat loss trial. But we’re still missing one thing: volunteers! Please read the study design and volunteer criteria below. If you’d like to apply, click the “Volunteer Application Form” link at the end of the post.

Study design

We’re looking for twelve overweight/obese volunteers (men or women of any age) who would like to eat a low-reward diet for one month, in the name of science. The diet will focus on simple, gently cooked food, and minimize flavorings including salt, herbs and spices, added fats and and added sugars. It will also minimize flour products, which have a high energy density and tend to be highly rewarding/palatable. It will strive to leave macronutrient ratios (carbohydrate, fat and protein) unchanged. The control group will be asked not to change diet or lifestyle over the course of the month. Volunteers will be asked to report body weight and waist circumference measurements, and fill out two short questionnaires (adherence, hunger, well-being, etc.). Data will be analyzed and reported publicly, but they will be reported in a 100% anonymous manner.

Since this is a randomized trial with an experimental group (n=7) and a control group (n=5), each volunteer will have a 58 percent chance of being selected for the experimental group, and a 42 percent chance of being in the control group. Unfortunately, the nature of a randomized trial means you don’t get to choose which group you end up in, but that’s a critical element of the study design for statistical reasons.

One limitation of this study is that if we do see fat loss in the intervention group, we will not be able to conclude that food reward/palatability is the critical factor, since other variables may change at the same time (e.g., sugar). We don’t have the resources to conduct a study that alters nothing but reward/palatability, which would require an experimental kitchen, a professional staff and local volunteers. However, our study will be able to answer the question “is advice to reduce the reward/palatability of the diet useful for fat loss”? It’s more of a practical question than a mechanistic one.

Volunteer criteria

Here are the criteria you must meet to qualify:

• must be sufficiently motivated to complete a one-month diet trial
• must carry substantial excess body fat (25+ lbs / 11+ kg excess fat). This correlates approximately with a body mass index of 25 or more in a person of average muscularity (BMI calculator: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/)
• must have an accurate scale and a tape measure
• must eat mostly food cooked at home
• must not rely heavily on processed convenience food and restaurants
• no diagnosed endocrine disorder (diabetes, hypothyroidism, etc.)
• must not currently be weight reduced relative to a prior weight
• must not currently be on a weight reducing diet (low-carbohydrate, low-fat, Paleolithic, Zone, Ornish, etc.)

If you meet all of these criteria, please click the link below to volunteer for the study. If you don’t meet the criteria yourself, but have a friend or family member that might, please forward them this post.

Volunteer Application Form

I’m excited to announce that Dr. Paul Jaminet from perfecthealthdiet.com will be joining us on the next episode of the podcast. Paul is one of the smartest people I know, and I’m very excited to have him on the show. A while back I reviewed his excellent book, The Perfect Health Diet, which is still the book I recommend to patients, family and friends who are interested in learning about the approach to nutrition I advocate.

I’m sure you’ll have a lot of questions for Paul; please leave them in the comments section and we’ll get to as many as we can. We’re recording on Friday the 19th, so make sure to ask your question by Thursday the 18th.

I think Paul will be a regular guest on the show, so if we don’t get to your question this time, don’t worry – you’ll have another chance!

This is just a short post to let you know I’ve decided to retire The Healthy Skeptic and merge it with my professional site, chriskresser.com. I don’t have an exact date for the switch, yet, but I expect it will happen in 2-3 weeks.

Why the change? When I first started The Healthy Skeptic, my intention was to challenge mainstream myths about nutrition, health and disease. The first myth I took on was the idea that cholesterol causes heart disease. Since then I’ve tackled several subjects, ranging from heartburn/GERD, hypothyroidism, diabetes & obesity (diabesity), essential fatty acids and fish oil, and depression.

But while I continue to maintain an attitude of skepticism about mainstream medicine and nutrition, I’ve come to feel that the title “The Healthy Skeptic” is too narrow and limiting.

Skepticism is reactionary, in the sense that it always arises in response to an existing idea, belief or meme. It’s a useful attitude and analytical tool, but it does not characterize my approach. Ultimately, I want to present a positive vision of holistic health and wellness that is defined more by what it is than what it is not.

Okay, enough about me. What does this mean for you, as a reader?

Not much. The transition should be completely seamless for you. The look and feel of the new site will be almost identical to this one (rather than chriskresser.com). There’s nothing you have to do. No new web address to remember. Everything will happen in the background. Ah, the wonders of technology.

Starting in about 2-3 weeks, when you click on a link with “chriskresser.com” in the address, such as:

http://chriskresser.com/heartdisease

you’ll automatically be redirected to this link:

http://chriskresser.com/heartdisease

This means that all “Healthy Skeptic” links will continue to work; they’ll just be redirected to the new location.

I’ll be creating a new Facebook page called “Chris Kresser L.Ac” and inviting those of you who are already fans of The Healthy Skeptic on Facebook to come join me at the new page. More on that to follow. My Twitter account (chriskresser) will stay the same.

The name of my podcast (currently “The Healthy Skeptic podcast”) will also change, though I haven’t settled on a name for it yet. Any ideas? Please leave them in the comments section.

The only other change to be aware of is that the email updates you get from me if you’re a subscriber will come from “Chris Kresser L.Ac” instead of “The Healthy Skeptic”. If you stop receiving email updates all of a sudden, please check your SPAM folder and make sure to add “Chris Kresser L.Ac” to your safe list.

I think that covers it. Back to the series on natural childbirth. I’ve taken a little break from the podcast since Sylvie was born, but will be recording the next episode soon. We’re going to have Chris Masterjohn back for part 2 of our cholesterol interview, and then Paul Jaminet shortly after.

I’m happy to announce that my wife Elanne gave birth at 9:44pm on July 23, 2011 to a beautiful baby girl.

Sylvie was born at home (in our bed, as a matter of fact!) weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces.

She’s healthy and doing very well as she explores this wide world outside the womb, and is diligently perfecting her breastfeeding technique.

Elanne and I are tired, as expected, but overflowing with joy and wonder. All the cliches are true – but don’t come close to expressing the reality of what it’s like to bring a child into the world and meet her for the first time. Of course all of you who are parents know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’m taking some time off from seeing patients and everything else I do to bond with Sylvie, rest and find a rhythm in this new family configuration. I do have a blog post I wrote before Sylvie’s birth I may post next week, but other than that things will be pretty quiet around here until I return to half-time work on August 8th.

In this quite space I’ve also had time to reflect on how fortunate I am to have such a passionate, engaged and supportive audience here on the blog, on my podcast and on Twitter and Facebook. I feel honored to be able to do this work and share it with you all, and I’m so grateful for your presence in this community.

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures… daddy has to change a dirty diaper!

As the audience and reach of my blog has grown, the number of juvenile, vitriolic and otherwise completely moronic comments has grown right along with it. I reached the end of my rope today when someone insulted my upcoming podcast guest, Kurt Harris, for no reason whatsoever and several other people attacked me personally for having the audacity to summarize research suggesting that excessive cardio is not effective for weight loss and may even be detrimental to our health.

With a full private practice, ongoing research, two blogs, live and online classes to teach, new projects in development, my own health and outside interests to consider, a wife that I love deeply and a baby on the way in four months I simply do not have time to referee useless and mean-spirited comments left by emotionally stunted miscreants who contribute nothing to the conversation here. In short, I’ve got better things to do.

I’ve been considering this since Kurt Harris decided to turn comments off at his blog (I remember being envious at the time). The main reason I haven’t is that I enjoy the sense of community and collaboration that has developed here, and I’ve been reluctant to give that up.

However, the good news is that I have a very active Facebook page where those who have a genuine question or are truly interested in contributing to the conversation can still do so.

I’m also working on an idea I’m very excited about that would offer opportunities for collaboration amongst people with a sincere interest in the subject matter I write about, and in improving their health and well-being to the greatest extent possible. I can’t say more about this yet, but stay tuned!

I’m approaching this as an experiment, which means I’m not ruling out brining comments back in the future. But it feels like the right decision to make at this point in time.

Last week I was interviewed by Robb Wolf and Andy Deas for their fantastic podcast, The Paleo Solution. I think it’s going to be released on Tuesday (Episode 69). If you’re not familiar with their show, head over to Robb’s website and check it out. You can also subscribe in iTunes. We discussed dairy products, leaky gut, fish oil, and a number of other topics. Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Photograph by Renshin Bunce

Darlene was one of the most authentic and inspiring people I’ve ever met, and our relationship truly transformed my life.

I first learned about her when I read her book, Finding Joy in the Heart of Pain (now called Turning Suffering Inside Out).

This was at a time in my life when I was still struggling enormously with chronic illness and pain, and reading her book was like a drink of cold water in the desert. Darlene was no stranger to illness and pain. She had rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune inflammatory condition affecting the joints, for more than 30 years. When the disease first struck her, she lost 40 pounds and was forced to stay in bed. She couldn’t dress herself, hold the phone receiver, or get up from the toilet unassisted. From her book:

In four months of deterioration, I lost everything that meant anything to me: reliance on a strong, young body; my achievements and the sense of self-worth they brought me; my pleasure in being a sexually attractive woman; my identity as a mother; and my ability to do the required practices and sustain myself in the community in which I lived as a student of Zen meditation. I became isolated from everyone I knew by my pain and fear and ultimately even by the consuming effort I had to make to do any little thing – like get up from a chair, pick up a cup of tea.

Although my illness wasn’t as severe as Darlene’s, I could certainly relate to the loss of function and the isolating effects of pain and fear she experienced. As I turned each page I felt as if Darlene was speaking directly to me. I finally felt that someone understood the struggles I had faced living with a chronic illness.

When I found out she was based in the Bay Area, I was ecstatic. I was already a student of Zen meditation, but was at that time without a teacher. I contacted Darlene and asked if she was accepting new students. She said (with characteristic candor) “It depends.”

We had our first meeting about a week later. It wasn’t what I expected at all. Mostly, we laughed. That happened a lot with Darlene. Before I met her, I didn’t know it was possible to be irreverent and sincere in the same moment. She was serious about ending suffering, but never took her suffering seriously. This was nothing short of liberating for me. From her book again:

How do we live through unbearable situations like a catastrophic disease without being destroyed? How do we deal with the mundane anguish of our everyday lives? How do we continue to live under crushing stress? And even further, how do we not just get through these things but have rich, full and worthwhile lives that we actually want to live – under any circumstances?

This is the question Darlene dedicated her life and her Zen practice to answering. She taught me (and many other students around the world) how to find joy in the heart of pain. How to stay present in circumstances that seem unbearable. And, most importantly, how to love and forgive ourselves through it all – whether we stay present or not, whether we are sad or happy, frustrated or at peace, sick or healthy.

A common pitfall on the spiritual path is the idea that meditation practice should produce a state of perpetual equanimity and acceptance – one in which negative feelings like anger, frustration and despair are never experienced. Darlene went out of her way to dispel this misguided notion wherever she encountered it.

In fact, one of the greatest gifts I received from her was learning the value of distraction. She had a special name for it: “down ‘n’ dirty comfort“. Here’s how she explains it in her book:

Even though it’s an ideal time to “embrace the suffering” or learn to “dance with disaster,” you don’t care. Furthermore, you don’t care that you don’t care. You’ve had it with trying to expand your consciousness. You hate your life and everybody in it. Nobody else cares, why should you? You’re at the end of your rope. It’s time for down ‘n’ dirty comfort. What you need is whatever will get you through the next few hours.

It might sound strange to hear a Zen teacher talk about the importance of distracting yourself. But that’s one of the things I appreciated most about Darlene: she didn’t fit the mold, and she didn’t try to. She constantly challenged conventional ideas about what it meant to be a spiritual practitioner and teacher.

One of my favorite stories she told illustrates this well:

One particular Friday, I was exhausted, miserable and resentful. I had worked hard all week, and it seemed to me that nobody appreciated me. Clients canceled their appointments, and nobody was taking any of my advice. My “poor me” tape started running, and my joints hurt. Although we were out of cookies, there were two Hagen-Dazs ice cream sandwiches in the fridge. I put them on a plate, curled up in bed under the thick comforter just the way I was, with my clothes and shoes on, and clicked on the TV. Geraldo was having a celebrity gossipfest with tabloid reporters telling all. I settled down into a blissful haze of pain, sugar and gossip.

I was actually pretty transported, feeling much better about life, when the phone next to my bed rang a half hour later. Since I didn’t want to go back into being-available mode, I had absolutely no intention of answering the phone or even listening to the message, but habit was stronger than gossip bliss. After the answering machine’s various clicks indicated someone was beginning to record, I muted the TV at the last minute. A woman I didn’t know began telling my machine she had heard me lecture and was very moved and impressed and wanted to study with me. I was such an inspiring person, she was sure forming a teaching relationship with me would help her cope with the pain she had in her life since I had set such an example with mine. She left her phone number. I clicked the TV mute button off and went back to Geraldo. In a few moments, I was laughing out loud. Here I was, the pain guru, the person people in pain want to emulate. I looked at myself huddled fully dressed under the bedcovers in the middle of the day, driven there by pain and self-pity, the plate full of ice cream sandwich crumbs sliding off to one side, my annoyance at having missed some Madonna gossip during the phone call, and thought “This is it. This really is my teaching.”

Darlene’s authenticity was refreshing. She was real. She let her students see not only her wisdom and strength, but also her humanity and pain. She taught me to continue to draw the circle of acceptance wider and wider, until it included everything – especially the “unacceptable”.

A few weeks before she passed, she said she wasn’t sorry to be leaving her painful body, and that the hardest part was leaving her students. I have similar feelings about her passing. I am glad she is finally free of her pain, after so many years of living with it. Yet I will miss her compassion, her insight, her sense of humor and, most of all, her humanity.

This morning I pulled out her book and read a few pages. I laughed out loud and I cried – all within a few minutes. That was Darlene. So full of life. So uninhibited. So immediate.

As I put the book away, I felt a strong sense of her presence. And with that, deep gratitude that she will live on in my heart and my spirit.

Jenny Ruhl over at Diabetes Update posted a notice about a glucometer test strip recall that may affect those of you measuring your own blood sugar:

Aboott Laboratories has just issued a huge recall for blood testing strips which read low. The strips take too long to absorb the drop of blood.

The list of affected lots is given here:

http://www.precisionoptiuminfo.com/img/Lot-Numbers.pdf

Further information can be found here:

http://www.precisionoptiuminfo.com/EN

Apparently, it takes more than 5 seconds for the blood to be absorbed and measured after being applied to the strip. I have some strips in the lot numbers listed in the recall, but they don’t seem to be affected since the blood is absorbed in only 1-2 seconds. I’ve been trying to reach Abbott to determine whether we can consider strips in affected lots that don’t take more than 5 seconds to absorb blood to be functional, but after waiting on hold for 20 minutes and getting hung up on several times, I gave up.

If anyone else is able to get through and find the answer to that question, please report back. For now, I’m assuming if the blood doesn’t take more than the typical 1-2 seconds to be absorbed, the strips are fine.

The last post on high intensity exercise wrapped up the series on diabesity. I’d love to get your input on topics for the next blog series as well as various classes and programs I plan to launch in the next few months, so I’ve created a brief survey.

In return for your help, I’ll be doing a drawing of completed surveys. There will be three winners, and each will receive their choice of $75 off a Paleo Detox Program or $50 off a Case Review. Make sure to enter your email address to be included in the drawing.

Please click here to complete the survey.

I’ll be giving four free public talks on the importance of detoxification in health in January. Subjects covered include the increasing toxic burden, the connection between food and environmental toxins and modern diseases like obesity, diabetes & heart disease, the role of a paleo-type diet in protecting against toxic overload, and specific nutrients necessary for proper detoxification. See below for dates. I hope to see you at one of them!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8TH
11:00am – 1:00pm @Ralph Bunche Academy
1240 18th St, Oakland, CA 94607
Between Mandela Pkwy & Adeline St. Ample on-street parking is available.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13TH
7:00pm – 8:30pm @Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, Berkeley
2550 Shattuck Avenue (at Blake)
10-minute walk south on Shattuck from downtown Berkeley BART

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15TH
11:30am – 1:00pm @Crossfit Oakland
5741 Doyle St, Emerville, CA 94608
5 blocks west of San Pablo, just off Powell St.. Ample on-street parking.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19TH
7:00pm – 8:30pm @American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine
555 De Haro Street (at 18th), Room E, San Francisco, CA 94107
Ample on-street parking is available.

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been able to write as much lately for the blog. I’ve been incredibly busy with my private practice, launching the Paleo Detox program, preparing and delivering talks locally, developing new content like ongoing class series and an eBook, and of course continuing my research on various topics.

I’ve got one more article to write for the series on diabesity. I’ll discuss what I believe to be the most effective form of exercise for restoring glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. I hope to get to that this weekend.

After that, I’ll be sending out a survey to get your input on the next series, as well as several other topics related to the blog and various projects I’ve got in the works.

I hope to get back to a more regular writing schedule at some point, but with everything going on it may take a while. In the meantime, I may try out some new formats, like posting a brief summary of articles from around the web that I’ve found interesting during the week.

Here are a few from this week.

Why Is My Cholesterol So High On This Diet?

In this article, Chris Masterjohn explains why some people see their cholesterol go up (often temporarily) when they switch to a nutrient-dense, whole-foods based diet. His theory, which is plausible from a physiological standpoint, is that the temporary cholesterol elevation is occurs because these folks are curing themselves of fatty liver disease.

In any event, we know that total and LDL cholesterol are weakly correlated with heart disease, so I’m never concerned when I see people’s cholesterol go up on a paleo or nutrient-dense diet. It’s expected. Especially when their HDL goes up and their triglycerides go down, which is the typical response.

Huge Metastudy: “Non Diabetic” Blood Sugars Cause “Diabetic” Retionopathy

Throughout my series on diabesity, I’ve presented evidence that blood sugar levels considered to be “normal” by mainstream standards are anything but, and that they can lead to complications like retinopathy and peripheral neuropathy.

Jenny Ruhl blogged today about a recently published meta-analysis that confirms this once again. In the study, blood sugar levels of 117 mg/dL or above, and an A1c of 6.3 or above (both below current limits) significantly increased the risk of retinopathy. But, as Jenny points out, the safe limits are lower still, because retinopathy is one of the last complications of diabetes to appear. Heart disease risk increases as post-meal blood sugars rise above 155 mg/dL, and increases in a straight line with A1c above 4.7, becoming quite significant as it rises above 6.

Grasse Based Health: Food For Thought

In this video, Peter Ballerstedt argues that animal protein and animal fat are not only superior to grains for human health, but also more sustainable from an agricultural and ecological perspective.

The presentation is quite dry, but the information is solid and it’s definitely worth watching.

I’m excited to announce that I have officially launched my private practice. I specialize in working with people struggling with complex, chronic illness that haven’t been able to find help anywhere else. I see patients locally in my Berkeley, CA office, and I also offer long-distance consulting to people around the world via telephone and Skype.

If you or someone you know is in need of this kind of support, please watch the video below for an introduction to my approach, and visit my professional website for more information about how I may be able to help.

Just a short note to let you know that it may be a while before I can finish the diabesity series. I was invited to join a holistic center here in Berkeley, CA and I’ll be starting my practice sooner than expected. I have a million things to do before I begin in October, and I don’t have much time to write. I may be able to slip an article in here and there in the next few weeks, but can’t make any promises.

Also, I may not be responsive to comments during this period. Please feel free to leave them, and I’ll try to get to them when I have a few moments.

Stay tuned for announcements on new services I’ll be making available, including private consultation and 4- and 8-week groups for those with particular health issues.

My passion is helping people that haven’t been able to find help anywhere else. I know what it’s like to live with a chronic, debilitating illness and to feel as if there’s nobody that really understands what’s going on. That’s why I chose medicine as a vocation: to become the kind of practitioner for others that I always wanted to find for myself.

Private consultations begin with an exhaustive case review, where I evaluate your current complaints, medical history and lab work for the past 5 years. They also include a comprehensive blood chemistry panel that gives me important information about your physiology, with thyroid, kidney, liver and metabolic markers, a complete blood count (CBC, fluids and electrolytes, cardiovascular risk factors, hemoglobin A1c and vitamin D (25D). Once we identify the underlying causes of the problem, we address them using diet, botanical medicine, supplements and lifestyle changes.

I’m particularly excited about offering groups. The first will be a detox program. The primary purpose is to reduce inflammation and decrease toxic load. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that inflammation and toxicity (from food and environmental chemicals) are primary drivers for nearly every modern disease – including obesity, diabetes, autoimmunity, heart disease, thyroid disorders, and digestive problems. Those who need to lose weight will, but that will merely be a consequence of optimizing function, and the program is also appropriate for normal weight people suffering from the problems above (as well as many others).

Group programs specifically for diabesity, thyroid disease and digestive problems are also in the works. They will include extensive education, dietary and lifestyle recommendations, nutritional supplements, exercise instruction and both one-on-one and group support. The goal is to give you all of the tools you need to successfully manage these conditions without unnecessary drugs or surgery.

The wonders of modern technology make private consultation and group programs available to not only people in the San Francisco Bay area where I’m located, but also anywhere in the US (and possibly Canada – I’m still working that out).

I’ll report back here with further details in a few weeks. In the meantime, if you’re interested in working with me privately you can contact me through the blog.