The Dr. Hyman Show

Functional Medicine is all about looking at the way our systems function together, rather than focusing on one part of the body at a time. The steps you take to support whole-body health work in the same way. Diet, exercise, stress reduction—they simultaneously affect more than just one aspect of your health—and new research has revealed that choices around these things can have major impacts on o...

When’s the last time you remembered a new phone number? This used to be the norm, but now most of us rely on our digital devices for everything from phone numbers to directions and even basic math. This might feel harmless but it’s actually doing our brains a disservice. We’re living in an age of digital dementia, because we don’t have to rely on our brains for the memorization and navigation we u...

As we continue to learn more about COVID-19, we continue to see a pattern in those more at risk. People who aren’t metabolically healthy (think obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension) are much more likely to experience severe complications if they are to get the virus. And to put that in perspective, only 1 in 8 Americans are considered metabolically healthy. That means...

The body and brain are one interconnected system, which means you can’t treat anxiety effectively by using only drugs or psychotherapy. You need to treat the body, because the body and brain are one interconnected system. Unfortunately, conventional medicine plays the name and blame game. It says, you are “anxious;” you need an “anti-anxiety” medication. But saying you are anxious explains nothing...

When we think about health, we usually think about diet and exercise. We think about the things we are doing for our physical body to promote wellness. But what about the things we can’t see? Relationships are a big one. For example. committing just ten to fifteen minutes a day to talking to someone we love is a powerful way to keep ourselves happy and connected, especially now during this time of...

One in three children born today will develop type 2 diabetes and four out of ten will be overweight. There’s a fundamental problem happening around our country when it comes to how we feed our kids and the lifelong health risks they face as a result. When we think about fixing the problem, it makes sense to look at our schools. In Boston, for example, 30,000 children a day rely on the school food...

Mounting research shows that there is no magic bullet to treat heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, allergies, digestive disorders, headaches, fatigue, or any of the myriad problems we suffer from in the 21st century. But increasing evidence also shows us something else. It shows that food is the most powerful “drug” we have not just to prevent, but also treat, cure, an...

Energy is such a major piece to overall wellness—we don’t feel very motivated to practice self-care and pursue the things we love if we simply don’t have the energy. So what does it really look like to have great energy, and what can we do in our own lives to create more of it? Today’s guest on The Doctor’s Farmacy is the perfect person to answer that. Ben Greenfield is a human performance consult...

People have never been more curious about strengthening the immune system than they are right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has got us all thinking seriously about our health and what it means to have immune strength, now and in the future. To get the most out of this trying time, we need to be open to looking at our health in ways we haven’t before. My guest today on The Doctor’s Farmacy, Dr. Jeffre...

We’ve all heard the fiendishly simple and completely untrue colloquialism that to lose weight you just have to eat less and exercise more. Or that it’s all about willpower and that it’s the individual’s fault if they are fat. Not only are these ideas completely unsupported by the scientific literature, but they also lead to a blame-the-victim mentality that tells people who are struggling with the...

We’re all going through this era of coronavirus—separately but together. I feel like humanity is taking one big existential breath; it’s a pause for us all to think about our previous normal lives, our currently abnormal lives, and how we want to reinvent life when this whole thing is over. And I know many of us have become confused by the different news outlets sharing different information. When...

There are so many questions about how coronavirus can impact our health, and rightfully so. This novel virus has completely changed the way we function as a society and brought about a feeling of uncertainty most of us haven’t ever experienced. But we’re in this together. There is, of course, a wide range of common concerns—from how to protect ourselves and families to what kinds of treatment opti...

Hormone imbalances are epidemic these days. For example, symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), like mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety, fluid retention, bloating, breast tenderness, sugar cravings, headaches, and sleep disturbances, affect 75 percent of women. But just because you’re a woman doesn’t mean you have to live with these symptoms.  The real fact is that suffering related...

We’re all trying to make sense of the new world order. And while my wife and I stay at home and navigate these unusual times, we find routine and practice to be the core of our wellbeing. We’re meditating every morning, going for walks in the woods, and taking afternoon work breaks to check-in and find time to connect. These seemingly simple actions have become the parts of our day that keep us gr...

Multiple times a day, even multiple times an hour, we’re hearing new information about COVID-19. Some of the most common questions I’ve received have to do with testing. We had our first case of novel coronavirus the same day South Korea had its first case. Yet they are much further ahead of us when it comes to testing, something that has helped them quickly control the virus in a way we haven’t b...

It’s natural to have a lot of questions right now. COVID-19 has quickly changed the way we think about health and go about our daily lives. And though we still have a lot to learn about the novel coronavirus, there are also a lot of ways we can keep ourselves, our families, and our communities strong and healthy. I recently hosted a webinar, along with the doctors at The UltraWellness Center, to a...

Numerous things can contribute to cancer development and cancer recurrence. Studies show diet, exercise, thoughts, feelings, and environmental toxins all influence the initiation, growth, and progression of cancer. And when it comes to treating cancer, we are good at cutting it, burning it, and poisoning it with surgery, radiation, and drugs, but many doctors fail to treat the root cause of the ca...

Only about 12% of Americans are considered “metabolically healthy.” That means the other 88% of us aren’t meeting basic medical guidelines for things like blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, and other markers of metabolic health. Which percentage do you fall into? When it comes to answering that question, one common factor is how many fast carbs you’re consuming. These are the carbohydrate...

For decades we were taught there was no stopping or reversing cognitive decline, now we know this simply is not true. The brain responds to all the same insults as the rest of the body — stress, poor diet, toxins, lack of exercise or sleep, nutritional deficiencies, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and more. The term dementia is just a label or diagnosis we associate with a collection of symp...

Sometimes we need to get quiet to really find the answers we’re looking for. What better time to do that than during this down-time at home? Artists, creators, and dreamers have always been our best teachers on breaking free from the distractions of life and just “being” with ourselves. They take facts and turn them into stories from which we can gain new perspectives. We can all learn many differ...

Today’s food labels are deliberately misleading and confusing, which serves the interests of Big Food, but not the rest of us. Most of us are completely oblivious to what we are eating and its impact on our health and our world. We are mostly unaware of the chemicals that are added to our foods; how the hormones, antibiotics, plastics, and toxins we eat in our everyday foods harm our bodies. There...

Most of us (including most doctors) do not recognize or know that digestive problems wreak havoc in the entire body, leading to allergies, arthritis, autoimmune disease, rashes, acne, chronic fatigue, mood disorders, autism, dementia, cancer, and more. So having a healthy gut means more than simply being free of annoyances like bloating or heartburn. It is absolutely central to your health. It is...

Did you know dementia begins in the brain decades before symptoms start showing up? We can see changes in brain scans 30 or 40 years before forgetfulness and other disconcerting symptoms creep in. But I’ve seen so many patients overcome symptoms of brain dysfunction through the right diet and lifestyle changes. If our actions can have that much power to reverse some forms of brain illness, why are...

We need to transform our food system and address one of the biggest threats to our well-being: our lack of a coordinated and comprehensive food policy. The outside influence that industrial food and agriculture lobbyists have on our policies encourages a food system that engenders disease. Lobbying power in Washington is rarely in the best interest of the public, supporting food and agriculture po...

The thyroid tends to be an underappreciated organ, but despite being a small gland it has massive implications for your health. While thyroid disease can occur in various forms, one of the most common is called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease where the body attacks the thyroid gland and diminishes its ability to create precious hormones—ones that impact every cell of the body. Hashi...