Posts by Sara Gottfried, MD
Personalized Lifestyle Medicine
We are experiencing a profound shift in the type of disease that affects the general population, and it is the main reason why I believe we need a paradigm shift from the current model of mainstream medicine to personalized lifestyle medicine. Allow me to explain why. The past few decades have witnessed a dramatic rise…
Read MoreBuild Resilience and Hormone Balance with Maria Shriver and Me
At the beginning of this week, I had the honor to be invited by Maria Shriver to chat with her on Architects of Change Live about what women need to know to help take control of their health. We talked hormones, the female brain, perimenopause, what supplements we should all be taking, and how to transform…
Read MoreOxalate Overload: How It Affects Your Gut, Urinary Tract, and Risk of Autoimmune Conditions
In personalized lifestyle medicine, sometimes one person’s superfood is another person’s poison. Such is the case with oxalates, which are found in high concentrations in many presumed health foods. Once I started testing, I realized that many of my patients were experiencing the downstream consequences of excess oxalate intake, usually in the form of green…
Read MoreWomen and Addictive Tendencies: Food and Alcohol
We live in a culture of partial truths when it comes to food and alcohol. We tend to exaggerate our assets and minimize our liabilities. I used to do it too. I would go out on a Friday night and feel like a rock star after a few drinks, and not be honest about the…
Read MoreTwo Questions to Ask Your Doctor Before You Agree to a Medication
Twelve years ago when I still worked in the trenches of conventional medicine (before I spun off to start my own integrative and functional medicine practice), I figured there had to be a better way to fill the gaps that patients encounter between what they struggle with and what mainstream medicine offers. Not everyone can…
Read MoreAlzheimer's Disease: The Sex-Related and Gender-Related Differences
We used to think that developing Alzheimer’s disease was inevitable, but that is no longer the case. Personalized lifestyle medicine has been shown in a case series led by UCLA professor Dale Bredesen, M.D. to reverse Alzheimer’s disease. But there is one important fact that is often overlooked: the disease shows up, progresses, and is…
Read MoreStroke, Toxins, and Women
You may never think of stroke. You may not think you’re at risk, that it’s a problem that occurs in older people, like grandparents. Certainly, it’s not a health risk for you. Turns out that strokes are on the rise among millennials. According to the Centers for Disease Control, strokes among women ages eighteen to…
Read MoreThe Ketogenic Diet in Women
As nutritional ketosis or “keto” grows in popularity, I see more women struggle with it. Certainly, there are some people who go on the ketogenic diet, see all the benefits of mental acuity and fat loss, and none of the problems. More men than women experience this level of keto success. Then there are the…
Read MoreWomen, Perimenopause, and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Call to Action
When your hormones go down in your forties, your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease go up. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for half of the cases. AD is a progressive brain/body disorder characterized by gradual memory loss, nerve cell loss, dysfunction of connections between nerve cells (synapses), and…
Read MoreThe Most Important Organ for Hormone Balance? Consider the Gut Microbiome
Your hormones exist in a delicate balance, playing alongside one another like instruments in an orchestra. Throughout the day your hormones fluctuate in rhythms, like crescendos of a symphony. Each hormone is like a specific instrument that must play on time and in rhythm with your other hormones. Together, your hormones create a beautiful harmony…
Read More