Your doctors think they make decisions based on medical evidence.

But they don’t!

In fact, half of medical evidence is hidden from your doctors. And the half that’s hidden is the half that shows drugs don’t work.

The bad news is that drug companies are not policed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the way they should be. A drug should be proven both effective and safe BEFORE it is prescribed to millions of people.

Sadly, that often isn’t the case.

Let me share with you two recent examples that highlight the dangerous collusion between drug companies and our government agency. They show why the FDA should really stand for “Federal Drug Aid.”

First, we now know that the cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia actually causes harm and leads to faster progression of heart disease DESPITE lowering cholesterol 58 percent when combined with Zocor.

This challenges the belief that high cholesterol causes heart attacks and shakes the $40 billion dollar cholesterol drug industry at its foundation.

Second, it’s come to light that nearly all the negative studies on antidepressants – that’s more than half of all studies on these drugs – were never published, giving a false sense of effectiveness of antidepressants to treat depression.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m not telling you to blame your doctor.

Instead, blame deceptive scientific practices and industry-protective government polices.

==> Let’s talk a closer look at these findings and their implications.

Are you eating food that's bad for you just because it costs less?

That's an excuse I hear often -- and I'll admit there's some truth to it.

The issues behind our economy and why some foods cost less than others are complex, but I'll try to simplify it here.

There are two main points to remember:

First, the true cost of unhealthy food isn't just the price tag -- in fact, the real costs are hidden.

(More on that in a just a minute.)

Second, eating healthy doesn't have to cost more.

Sure, it seems cheaper to eat a burger, fries, and a soda from McDonald's than to eat a meal of whole foods. 

But there are healthier options.

I will give you suggestions to help you eat well for less -- and save you money and suffering.  You are not destined to be fat if you are poor!

Just because you have a diagnosis doesn't mean you know what's really wrong with you!

Don't believe that?

I didn't used to, either!

As a doctor, I was trained to believe that all people with the same diagnosis were the same. 

That means, I thought that one person's asthma was the same as someone else's asthma and that depression was the same in everyone.

That made my job pretty easy -- once I made the diagnosis, all I had to do was match the pill to the ill, the drug to the disease.

What's wrong with this approach?

When doctors practice medicine this way, we end up treating the NAME of a disease -- not the CAUSE.

The truth is, everyone is different, even people with the same diagnosis.

“Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
-- Hippocrates

Want to know the secret behind how Italians stay so thin and happy?

It’s a secret I uncovered during my trip to Italy, where I’m writing this week’s blog.

Sitting in the Umbrian countryside, having just enjoyed a home-cooked meal prepared by Simonetta, a local chef, the answer is clear to me.

Family, friends, and fresh, whole food are all part of the pleasure of being alive.  And these pleasures help keep you healthy and thin.

It’s that simple!

The food I’ve eaten in Italy is real food, meant to savored, not just used as fuel.

Tonight’s meal was served on a long wooden table, set with beautiful ceramic plates painted with sunflowers. 

Simonetta made light chicken meatballs with a fresh tomato sauce, accompanied by an fresh arugula and radicchio salad, and a side salad of vine-ripened, freshly picked garden tomatoes, fresh basil, roasted peppers, and grilled eggplant, drizzled with fresh extra-virgin olive oil made from the olive trees surrounding the old stone farmhouse. 

Barbeques. Fireworks. Parades. That's how many people celebrated July 4th last week.

In honor of our country's birthday, I also took my family to see An Inconvenient Truth.

The movie is about Al Gore's slide show about the global warming crisis -- but as I watched the film, I realized that the parallels between our environment and our healthcare crisis are striking.

In fact, the health of our environment and the health of our bodies are in equal peril -- and are intertwined.

In the movie, our former vice president explains how the things we think make us comfortable -- luxury cars, climate-controlled work and home spaces, and other goods fueled by the endless consumption of oil (carbon) -- are actually destroying the very world around us.

Our approach to health isn't much different.

Most of us believe that our country's healthcare system is designed to keep us healthy. In fact, it does just the opposite!

Think about it. What fuels the health care economy?

Sickness, not health. 

That's right.