Last week, I linked to a story about a popular vegan blogger, author, and influencer who found herself going into menopause at the age of 37 despite doing “everything right.” She exercised, she ate raw, she avoided gluten and refined sugar, and, most importantly, she avoided all animal products. Now, this wasn’t a randomized controlled trial. This wasn’t even a case study. But it was a powerful anecdote from someone whose livelihood depended on her remaining a raw vegan. It wasn’t in her interest to make it up.
So, it got me wondering: How do diet and lifestyle influence the timing of menopause?
Read MoreMuch has been made of avocado oil’s ample nutritional benefits; however, its healing properties for skin and hair are too often overlooked. Sure, it’s hard to compete with improving lipid profiles and combating systemic inflammation, but this clean eating elixir offers advantages beyond interior health. While Mark has mentioned using avocado oil as a regular skin moisturizer, in truth there are many applications to nurture both skin and hair. Whether you’re interested in natural cosmetic ideas or simply basic skin and hair health, avocado oil offers a nutritive, non-toxic tool for your care routine.
Read MoreOn June 23rd, the world changes. Every RV, Subaru Outback, and pickup truck in every neighborhood across the country disappears from city limits. Expect the swoosh of fiberglass poles sliding through tent fabric to resound across the land and millions of campfires to produce enough smoke to block out the sun. Molted marshmallow flows will destroy hundreds of homes, and millions of fathers sitting on Doug fir rounds by the fire will tell so many ghost stories that they summon actual phantoms from the spirit world. The nation’s circadian rhythms will get a hard reset back to the superior factory settings, thanks to avoidance of artificial light after dark. Or so we could hope….
Read MoreLast week’s Q&A about cultivating wildness was a lot of fun, but there were some questions I didn’t get to in the original post. Today, I’m going to answer some more. From stirring stories of a father and son pursuing and living their dream after experiencing extreme tragedy to how to go barefoot more safely to the balance between creativity, progress, and Primal values to accepting the reality (and beauty) of having work to do to the value of sun exposure in winter to circadian entrainment. In short, we’re covering a ton of ground today.
Let’s go:
Read More“In the winter months, when the sun’s rays are not intense enough to generate sufficient vitamin D production (this is the case for three to five months per year for locations in North American—you know it’s downtime for D when you can’t get a tan even with prolonged sun exposure), supplements and safe-designated artificial tanning implements can be useful or even essential if you are at high risk for deficiency.
If you have an indoor-dominant lifestyle or even a hint of aforementioned risk factors, you should regularly test your blood for vitamin D. Make sure it’s for ’25-vitamin D’ or ‘serum 25(OH)D.’ You can order this test directly from an online provider like direct labs.com. or, if you are getting a routine checkup, insist they include vitamin D in your blood panels. (Unfortunately, it’s often not included.)”
—From The New Primal Blueprint
For more on vitamin D sources, deficiency, testing and recommended levels, see The New Primal Blueprint or check out past articles on MDA.
Read MoreFor today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering questions from last week’s hormone normalization post. First I discuss a lack of purpose in the mornings affecting sleep and what to do about it. Next, I explore the prospect of sun and fasting as hormone modulators. After that, I explain the meaning of max aerobic heart rate and correct a mistake I made. And finally, I suggest to one reader that she may need to eat more calories to normalize her sleep and thus her hormones.
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