The mindbodygreen Podcast

“The food industry is experimenting on us without data and knowledge,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., DrPH. Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, and author of the book, Food is Medicine (Holt/Macmillan). He serves as Distinguished Professor, Dean Emeritus, and Jean Mayer Professor; and is clinically active in cardiology at Tufts Medical Ce...

"What we know for sure is that Alzheimer's is a preventable disease. It's not destiny,” says Kellyann Niotis, M.D. Niotis is the world’s first fellowship-trained preventive neurologist. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, the Director of Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia Prevention Research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND) and runs a...

00:00 - The myth of sports specialization 04:29 - How youth sports became a billion-dollar industry 05:10 - My own path to Division I basketball 06:52 - Higher risk of overuse injuries 09:42 - The weaker case for burnout 10:41 - Junior stars & adult pro athletes are different people 12:28 - Deliberate play & the sampling years 15:00 - 3 honest caveats 16:10 - How Norway keeps kids playing 20:29 -...

"I hope in 20 or 30 years time, a clinical diagnosis is something that's rarely given because most everything has been caught before it rises to that stage,” says Andrew Lacy. Lacy is the CEO and founder of Prenuvo, the company pioneering proactive whole-body imaging for the early detection of cancer and other diseases. Under Lacy’s leadership, the company has expanded across North America, establ...

"What is the lowest dose of intervention that can have the maximum effect to help the body heal itself?” asked Keshav Grover, D.O., M.S., IFMCP. Grover is the founder of Grover Health and Wellness, PLLC. He is a physician, keynote speaker, and champion of functional/integrative medicine and of eating a whole foods, plant-based diet. He holds a Doctorate in osteopathic medicine from Michigan State...

“I don't need to track it. I just listen to my body,” says Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph. D., Ms. C.  Dr. Emanuel is an oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics. He is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, and holds appointments in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Department of H...

"The diet you'll stay on is a diet that's enjoyable and not too hard,” says Wendy Bazilian, DrPH, MA, RDN.  Bazilian is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, American College of Sports Medicine Certified Exercise Physiologist, and Doctor of Public Health. She's authored multiple bestselling books, as well as contributed to a New York Times bestseller and a James Beard-nominated cookbook. She’s...

What does driving a sports car actually do to your hormones? In this episode, we break down a surprisingly revealing 2009 study in which researchers had men drive a bright red sports car and a beige sedan and measured changes in their testosterone before and after. The results weren't what anyone expected. And the real finding had nothing to do with speed, horsepower, or even the car itself. We di...

“As your time commitment goes down, the importance of intensity goes up,” says Kristi Storoshuk. Storoschuk is a PhD candidate in Muscle Physiology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Her research focuses on the relationship between skeletal muscle metabolism and whole-body metabolism, with an emphasis on how nutrient–exercise timing influences physiological adaptations to exercise. Storos...

"It's way better to pull yourself back from the brink of burnout before it hits than to let yourself fall all the way in,” says Elizabeth Svoboda. Svoboda is an award-winning science writer and contributor to Scientific American, Discover, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and other publications. Elizabeth is a winner of the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Writers, and her work...

“We can choose our brain’s destiny,” says David Perlmutter, MD. Perlmutter is a Board-Certified Neurologist and six-time New York Times bestselling author whose work focuses on the intersection of neurology, nutrition, and brain health. He is on the Board of Directors of the American College of Nutrition and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. His books, including the #1 bes...

"If you don't get those foundational behaviors down, there ain't nothing a peptide's gonna do for you,” says Rachele Pojednic, Ph. D. Pojednic is a professor of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at Stanford University and is the Chief Science Officer at Restore. Her work examines nutrition, supplementation and physical activity interventions on muscle physiology, performance and recovery, a...

"I think structure is more liberating than it is stifling, and it often takes people losing it to sort of realize that,” says David Epstein. Epstein is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Range and the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism and has worked as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and as an inves...

“Every human being comes equipped with the capacity to flourish,” says Richard Davidson, Ph. D.  Davidson is the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds. He is best known for his groundbreaking work studying emotion and the brain. A friend and confidante of the Dalai Lama...

"When it comes to high-intensity interval training work, quality is much more important than quantity,” says Fraser Thurlow, Ph. D.  Thurlow is a high-performance coach, researcher, and lecturer with over a decade of experience helping people improve their fitness and performance. He holds a PhD in Human Performance, has published extensively on training, and has lectured at leading Australia...

“When we engage in the arts, it exposes us to a lot of emotions, which can have a tangible impact on the neurotransmitters released in our brains, the stress hormones in our bodies, and even the levels of inflammation in our immune system,” says Daisy Fancourt.  Fancourt is a Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London where she heads the Social Biobehavioural Research...

“Anatomy and physiology always matter when it comes to pain. They're just not the whole story,” says Rachel Zoffness, Ph. D. Zoffness is a pain scientist, pain psychologist, and thought-leader revolutionizing the way we understand and treat pain. She's an assistant clinical professor at UCSF, lectures at Stanford, and consults on the development of pain management programs around the world. Dr. Zo...

"Making the effort earlier totally changes the trajectory for the rest of your life,” says Jeremy London, MD. London is a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon with more than 25 years of clinical experience caring for patients across the full spectrum of heart disease — from prevention to advanced intervention. Dr. London received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and complet...

"Midlife is a perfect time for you to think about where you've been & where you want to go,” says Margie Lachman, PhD.  Lachman is professor of psychology at Brandeis University and director of the Lifespan Lab. A leading expert on adult development and aging, Lachman is one of a small group of scholars who study midlife from a lifespan developmental perspective. Her honors include research awards...

"There is no one magic test for brain health,” says Richard Isaacson, MD.    Isaacson is a Harvard-trained neurologist who directs the Precision Prevention Program at Atria Health and Research Institute and founded the world's first Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian. A leader in precision-medicine approaches to Alzheimer's risk reduction, he has served as...

"You shouldn't be spending more than five minutes in there at a time,” says Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH. A graduate of Harvard College, Pasricha earned her medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her training includes an internal medicine residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and gastroenterology...

"Almost all of the interventions that make us happier work because they make us feel more connected and more loved,’ says Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph. D. Lyubomirsky is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the bestselling author of The How of Happiness and The Myths of Happiness—and he...

“Placebo effects are real and mind-body effects are real, and there's a fairly large scientific literature on these things,” says Joshua W. Brown, Ph. D. Brown is a professor of Psychological and Brain Science at Indiana University, where he directs the Cognitive Control Lab. He also co-founded the Global Medical Research Institute With decades of experience in computational neuroscience and over...

"What we don't know CAN really hurt us, " says Florence Comite, M.D.  Comite is a Yale University School of Medicine and National Institutes of Medicine trained physician-scientist, endocrinologist, and the leading voice in the field of precision medicine and healthy longevity. She was founder of the first global women only health center at Yale three decades ago and is founder of the Comite Cente...

"I want people to start thinking of walking as a physiological necessity, not simply as a form of exercise,” explains Courtney Conley, D.C. Conley is a renowned foot and gait specialist, chiropractic physician, and founder of Gait Happens and Total Health Solutions clinic and Total Health Performance gym in Lakewood, She is a founding member of the Healthy Foot Alliance and coauthor of Walk, a new...