Why don’t you post recipes somewhere on this site. I have trouble remembering where they are!!

GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy have dominated health headlines, but new research reveals an important caveat. A comprehensive meta-analysis examining data from multiple clinical trials found that weight regain begins as early as eight weeks after stopping these drugs, with participants regaining approximately 60% of their lost weight within a year. Metabolic benefits (improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar) also reverted to pretreatment levels. The mechanisms driving this rebound include increased appetite, reduced energy expenditure, and hormonal changes that favor weight restoration. From a Functional Medicine perspective, this isn't surprising. These drugs don't address the root causes of weight gain; they manage symptoms. When you remove the medication, the underlying metabolic dysfunction remains. This doesn't mean GLP-1 drugs have no role to play, but the evidence suggests that people will need to take them indefinitely to maintain benefits. Given the novelty of these medications, some preliminary evidence of adverse effects, and uncertainty about long-term risks, they're not the magic bullet they've been made out to be. For sustainable results, addressing the foundational factors (diet quality, sleep, stress, movement, and gut health) remains essential.

Can someone please inform me of what skin oil you recommend for dry skin? I had baby oil tested and it was okay for me, but is there a much higher quality skin oil that you recommend?

If you've been avoiding the gym because you think you need to lift heavy weights to build muscle, new research in The Journal of Physiology has liberating news. When researchers had participants perform resistance training with either heavy loads (70-80% of their one-rep max) or light loads (30-40% of their one-rep max) for 10 weeks, they found identical muscle growth in both groups, provided that both groups trained to failure. The study tracked multiple measures of hypertrophy, from whole-body lean mass to individual muscle fiber size, and consistently found no advantage to lifting heavier weights. Even more interesting, the hypertrophic response was relatively conserved within individuals regardless of which load they used, suggesting your inherent biology matters more than the specific weight on the bar. This debunks the persistent myth that you must lift heavy to gain significant muscle. The keys are: lift loads you can tolerate, train close to failure, accumulate volume over time, progress consistently, and stop obsessing over finding the "optimal load." For many people, lighter weights mean lower injury risk and better exercise adherence, which ultimately matters more than any theoretical advantage of heavier loading. Pick weights that allow you to train hard, safely, and consistently.

If you've been practicing intermittent fasting primarily for the metabolic benefits, a new study might change how you think about why it works. The ChronoFast trial, published in Science Translational Medicine, investigated whether an eight-hour eating window could enhance insulin sensitivity and cardiovascular health while maintaining the same calorie intake. Researchers followed 31 women with overweight or obesity through two different eating schedules (early window from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and late window from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.), carefully controlling for identical calorie and nutrient intake. The result? No measurable improvements in insulin sensitivity, blood sugar, blood fats, or inflammatory markers. The only change observed was a shift in circadian rhythms, with participants' internal clocks moving by about 40 minutes based on meal timing. This aligns with what I've always believed about intermittent fasting: it's effective because it spontaneously reduces calorie intake, not because food intake is compressed into a shorter window. The good news is that most people will naturally eat less when they practice intermittent fasting, which is where the real benefits come from. To be confident it's working, track your calorie intake for a few days and ensure it's actually lower than it would be without the fasting window.