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I have been practicing medicine, living, and doing endurance sports in Colorado since 2002. If you plan on visiting Colorado for athletic training, or anywhere at high altitude, there are some things you should know that will help you acclimatize to the altitude when training between 5,000 and 12,000 feet elevation.   What Athletes Should Eat to Help with Altitude Acclimation When you are training at higher altitudes, your bone marrow w...

The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland that is positioned at the front of the neck near the Adam's apple, producing thyroid hormones called T4 and T3. The thyroid gland has effects on not only the metabolism, but also on the heart, brain, bones, colon, and skin/hair. The thyroid makes the hormones that circulate around the body and do their thing. What Does the Thyroid Do? The thyroid gland governs our metabolism. Metabolism is the proce...

Niacin (vitamin B3) was one of the first drugs that was ever used to improve cholesterol levels. It was frequently used with good results before the introduction of statin medications. Now it is common for conventional medical doctors to tell patients to stop taking niacin and take statins instead. When Statins for High Cholesterol Are Patient Incompatible In 2019, Lipitor was the most prescribed drug in the United States and is still considere...

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) has been gaining acceptance as an underlying cause of gastro-intestinal symptoms like irritable bowel syndrome. This post goes into the misconceptions around SIBO, how the movement of food plays a part in SIBO, as well as the immune system, the vagus nerve, and food poisoning. What is SIBO? SIBO was first discovered in 1939 but rifaximin was not approved for its treatment until 2015. A landmark study...

When it comes to cholesterol, it is helpful to know that “lipids” is the medical term for your HDL, LDL, VLDL, non HDL, and triglycerides. [1] Though simplistic, LDL is referred to as the bad cholesterol and HDL the good cholesterol. The reason for this is that cells have a receptor for LDL that allows the cholesterol particles to go in and HDL has receptor that pulls cholesterol away. This is called reverse cholesterol transport and it is im...