Dr. Ashok Bhandari

08/22/2021

Are you ready to get back out there, but are concerned about injury, burnout, or conditioning?

Learn from Olympic athletes, doctors, and sport medicine experts how to reach peak performance - we’ll share what top athletes are doing for hydration, nutrition, prehabilitation, and recovery.

As guest editor of this ebook, I may be biased but this is an absolute must-have resource for anyone getting back into fitness after a year of Zoom-life. Check out the link and download this ebook - for free.

Olympic athletes, doctors, and sports medicine experts offer advice on how to safely return to an active lifestyle (and stay there).

08/18/2021

08/12/2021

This is a great (FREE) sports medicine ebook that I had the wonderful opportunity to be guest editor for.

Lots of super useful information in this - please give it read and let me know what you think! And, if you find it useful, share with your family and friends!

Olympic athletes, doctors, and sports medicine experts offer advice on how to safely return to an active lifestyle (and stay there).

07/24/2021

Ever wonder what is takes to elevate your sports performance from average to exceptional. Learn about the how sports performance relies on a strong support network of power players in naturopathic medicine. One of these is Ashok Bhandari, ND, MSAyu at SageMED, a naturopathic physician in Bellevue, W...

12/06/2020

invited me back to chat with her about Ayurvedic medicine and how the principles of Ayurveda can help you stay in balance in even the most stressful environments. It is a talk geared towards self care for entrepreneurs, but really this is open and useful for ANYONE!

Our last IG live was super fun and is posted on both our pages - in case you missed it. This time, we really want to hear towards questions so be sure to send those in either early or during the live!
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If you don't know much about Ayurveda and all the ways it can help support your mission as an entrepreneur, NOW is the time to get in the know!

See you LIVE on Sunday, December 13 at 6pm PT/7pm MT/9pm ET. Save the date!

To help guide the chat, let me know if you have any experience with Ayurveda. If you're completely new to it, let me know that, too! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

11/14/2020

YES! Literally, exercise helps with everything! And just like exercise in anxiety, which I posted about a couple of days ago, exercise is an absolute must when working with any form of depressed mood, depression, or other depressive mood disorder. And just like in anxiety, exercise interventions are extremely well supported in the research - Again, even better supported than the use of first line medications like antidepressants. Quite honestly, exercise is the MOST underutilized antidepressant in the world.

Though all movement and exercise is helpful, specifically working with moderate-to-high intensity cardiorespiratory exercise seems to be the most effective for depression. Also, through exercise, it’s important to address the metabolic dysfunction that often is underlying depression - more and more evidence suggests a major cause of depression is inflammation that starts in the gut and the rest of the body (adipose is a MAJOR source) and causes brain inflammation! Also, breath training can be profound in dealing with depression.

11/13/2020

Hell yeah it can! There is this old - and incorrect - idea that exercise like running causes arthritis. Not exactly true.

Osteoarthritis is a complex condition that has multiple foundational causes, and though one of them can be related to movement, proper exercise is not one. The truth about this relationship is that poor biomechanics and activities that result in overuse and improper loading of joints is what can contribute to the development of arthritis. Joints are meant to move. In fact, that’s how cartilage breathes.

Cartilage in your joints does not have any of it’s own blood flow. Instead, it acts like a sponge in the joint; when it’s squeezed, fluid comes out into the joint cavity, and when the pressure is released, fluid gets sucked back in. The fluid, synovial fluid, is oxygenated and “cleaned” by blood flow to the joint capsule (surrounding ligaments and soft tissue).

So, as the joint moves, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrients get flushed in and out of the cartilage, allowing it to literally breathe. What does this mean? Movement and exercise actually protect joints from arthritis! The problems arise when joints are loose or weak, or are stuck in the same position for too long (like when you sit at work for 9 hours straight and don’t move your legs), and the cartilage gets suffocated or overused in a specific spot. This, along with a whole host of other factors (total body inflammation, percent body fat, underlying inflammatory conditions, gut dysbiosis, etc.), can lead to arthritis. But, even if you have arthritis, the evidence shows the regular exercise can help slow progression and even reverse it!

So, no, running doesn’t cause arthritis by itself, and yes, exercise can help with arthritis. Get out and run - just make sure your feet, ankles, knees and hips are strong and supported, and your running form is 👌🏽

11/12/2020

YES! Exercise is a huge tool for just about all health-related goals. But specifically, exercise can be incredibly beneficial for addressing anxiety. In fact, it is very well researched and supported for this outcome, and has even better evidence than most first and second line medications used for anxiety, like SSRI’s.

When talking about specifics; resistance training, exercise with an emphasis on breathwork/resolving hyperventilation, and calming/grounding exercise like yoga works best.

So if you are feeling anxious, or have a history of anxiety, get some exercise in your regular routine and reap the benefits of the most underutilized anxiolytic!

Yoga

11/11/2020

Short answer: no.

Gatorade, Powerade, or whatever-ade the kids are drinking these days, it’s quite unnecessary and not particularly healthy. Sports drinks in general have wayyy too much sugar (some sugars are helpful at times) and not nearly enough of the good stuff that should be in a sports drink, like electrolytes and micronutrients.

Unless you are sweating heavily, just plain old water is probably good enough. If you need to replenish electrolytes after a high intensity workout or a long duration exercise session, then consider reaching for something like what I’ve listed below:
- Plain water with raspberries, cucumber, lemon, and some honey
- Coconut water
- Water with an electrolyte supplement that has more than just sodium and potassium, but includes magnesium, chloride, taurine, and even D-ribose.

If you fit into the above category, stick to just water and skip the fancy workout-branded Kool-aid.

11/10/2020

I’ve posted about environmental sources of toxicants before, but one common one that is often overlooked is your shoes.

Now this is not just something I do because I grew up in an Indian household and it’s absolute blasphemy wearing shoes indoors, but also because your shoes really do track in a lot of junk. That junk is often more than just some benign dirt - there’s a ton of evidence showing that bringing outdoor shoes into the home is one of the primary sources of tracking in heavy metals, environmental pollutants like VOC’s (Volatile organic compounds - I have a post about these), pesticides, herbicides, allergens, and more.

So, take your shoes off at the door. It’s not just about keeping your house clean and tidy, it’s actually affecting your health.

11/09/2020

Like many diagnoses you may receive from the doctor, such as chronic low back pain, headache, or fatigue, hypertension is not really a diagnosis - it’s a symptom. It is a clue that your body provides you to get your attention about a deeper underlying issue.

Most hypertension diagnoses in medicine are referred to as “essential hypertension.” Make any sense to you? Yeah, me neither. What this actually means is that there is no known cause for the hypertension… usually because no one looked. In reality, there is ALWAYS a root cause: you just need to see the right doctor to help you find it.

Common causes of hypertension:
- Hyperventilation and poor breathing mechanics
- Diet
- Underlying kidney disease
- Diabetes
- Obesity and metabolic dysfunction
- Alcohol intake
- Renal artery stenosis (small kidney arteries)
- High stress and poor stress response
- Sleep apnea
- Medications (huge issue)
- Genetics

Whatever the cause may be, make sure you’re not just put on hypertension meds without a proper work up of why you have high blood pressure. If that’s what happened to you… well, time to go doctor hunting!

11/08/2020

PRP can be used for treating injuries to tendons, ligaments, muscle, and joints. PRP is also used in oral, dental, and maxillofacial surgeries, cosmetically for regrowth of thinning hair and resolving wrinkles, and even for treating, preventing, or slowing down the progression of osteoarthritis! Depending on the condition, it can take anywhere from 1-3 treatments for optimal results.

PRP is safely and effectively used to treat a number of conditions, including:
• Low back pain, such as sacroilitis, facet syndrome, facet arthropathy, and more
• Osteoarthritis of the knees, hips, ankles, shoulders, hands, and fingers
• Spine degenerative joint disease, such as osteoarthritis
• Rotator cuff tears
• Ligament tears and sprains
• Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow
• Jumper’s knee and runner’s knee
• Meniscus injuries
• Acromioclavicular joint injuries

Interesting in learning more? Do you have an injury that you think would benefit from PRP? Get in touch! Link in bio.