Dr. Shane Speights

11/17/2025

You need to know about this.

In the past few weeks a new Flu strain has been detected in the UK and Canada. It’s an influenza H3N2 strain (being called Subclade K) that genetically changed sometime over the summer.

Why do you care?

The Influenza (flu) virus kills lots of people every year and, for the most part, getting your flu vaccine helps protect you from being hospitalized or dying from it. People at higher risk of serious complication or death are – older patients, those that are obese/overweight, those with a chronic disease (aka you have to take a prescribed medication everyday), and the very young (babies/infants). Really, your risk boils down to how well your immune system is able to fight the virus off. I know, blah, blah, blah, you’ve heard all this. Here’s the important part:

Every year they manufacture a new flu vaccine based on a “best guess” of what type of flu virus will be going around. It takes about six months to make a flu vaccine (which means we can’t quickly make a new one or make more) and typically, it contains version of H1N1, H3N2, and a flu type B. Here’s the issue, over the summer they discovered that the H3N2 strain had mutated in seven different places of its genetic code. That change is considered a major “drift” and it’s a big deal. Why? Because it means the current flu vaccine won’t work very well against this new strain. The other issue is that the H3N2 strain is historically a really “tough” strain of influenza – meaning it causes more hospitalizations and deaths. H3N2 is usually the one that causes us to have a “bad flu year”.

What can you do?

In the U.S. we haven’t really seen many flu cases to this point, but if this mutated H3N2 strain takes off, it’s going make a lot of people sick. Even though the current vaccine is not a match to this new strain you should still get vaccinated. Why? Have I mentioned how freaking smart your body is? When you get vaccinated, your body creates a “memory” on how to fight whatever is in the vaccine, but it also creates a whole list of other memory cells that are genetically similar to whatever was in the vaccine. Your body knows that viruses can change over time (just like what we’re seeing now) so it wants to at least have some idea of how to fight it off. Unfortunately, your immune response won’t be as good as it would have been if the vaccine was a match, but it’s certainly better than nothing.

This is a time when you really need to be in the best shape you can be. This is when doing everything you can around diet, activity, sleep, and wellness will pay off for you.

Stay tuned for more, and watch for any new information on this new flu strain. Fingers crossed this new flu doesn’t take off and give us issues. Until now, we were hoping to see a fairly normal flu season.

Data from Canada, UK, and Japan reveal an H3N2 flu variant that may affect 2025-2026 season.

11/16/2025

Activity/Exercise

“A body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest – Newton’s first law of motion”

This is very true for human “bodies”. It is vital that our bodies move for so many reasons, but just basic physiology demands it. For example, the arteries in our bodies have a thicker layer of muscle that can contract to help move blood, but our veins don’t. The muscle layer in veins is much thinner. They rely more on surrounding muscle contractions, and a system of one-way valves, to help move blood back to the heart. The lymphatic system is even more dependent on physical movement because it doesn’t have the ability to squeeze fluid at all. Without muscle contraction, lymphatic fluid can “pool” in some areas. This can be a reason for swelling in the lower legs. Reminder – the lymphatic system (made up of lymph nodes, immune cells, antibodies, etc.) is key to your immune system working properly in fighting off diseases and cancers.

For many decades we subscribed to the R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) approach to general musculoskeletal injuries (sprains, pulled muscles, etc.). We now know that’s probably not the best approach to most injuries. Yes, there is a period of rest needed right after the injury, but the evidence now says that you probably do better the quicker you return to regular activity, and move the affected area. A lot of this thought is changing because of what we have seen when we don’t move – muscle atrophy (shrinkage), contraction (shortening) of tendons/ligaments (this is what you feel when you stretch), blood clots, pneumonia, and constipation to name a few.

Even more striking is the research showing that a sedentary lifestyle (sitting around for extended periods of time) actually shortens your life. We’ve started to see more studies on this over the past 5-10 years, but there was a really large study that caught everyone’s attention.

It was a study of 481,688 people over a period of 12.8 years (that’s a big study) that looked at individuals who had jobs where they sit most of the day (6-8 hours). It found that those who sit most of the day had a 16% increased risk of death from any cause (heart attack, stroke, cancer, etc.), and a 34% increase in cardiovascular disease compared to those who didn’t sit as much.
There is also data linking a sedentary lifestyle to neck pain, backpain, high blood pressure, uterine fibroids, chronic prostatitis and host of other issues.

“What if sitting most of the day is just part of my job? Doc, these bills won’t pay themselves.”

I get it, that just means you need to look for opportunities to stay active when you’re not sitting (before or after work/school). You can also look into a standing desk (I use one of those). They even make under-the-desk treadmills (I tried one, almost broke my neck while trying to type an email, buyer beware). Taking regular breaks to walk around (preferably outside) is also something to consider (every 45 minutes if possible).

Bottomline - sitting for 6-8 hours a day or more will absolutely increase your risk of early death.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2814094
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.124.011644
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/13/12/e073592
https://www.mendwellhealth.com/all-conditions/abacterial-chronic-prostatitis

How much exercise is recommended?

- The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends you exercise at least 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week for a total of 150 minutes a week.
o There have been a few studies looking at the “weekend warriors” who do all their exercise on the weekends. Honestly, the data looks pretty good for those that choose to do that, but there is other data that says regular, consistent exercise may be more beneficial.
o You should have a goal to engage in diverse exercise – yoga, cardio-aerobic, weight lifting (different body areas), etc. Don’t get stuck just doing what you like. Men are the worst at just working out arms, chest and back, and then pulling a hamstring walking up a flight of stairs. Diversity in your workouts is really important.

- Once you hit the age of about 35 you need to start focusing on “injury prevention”. That’s where a yoga class or some type of formal stretching routine can really make a difference. It helps maintain flexibility so you don’t hurt your back while raking leaves in the yard.
o Here’s the issue that sneaks up on most everyone. As we get older (and when we don’t regularly use different muscle groups) our muscles, tendons and ligaments start to contract (get shorter) and become less “stretchy”. When that happens, it increases the risk of injury, and can contribute to chronic pain. That’s why you hurt your neck just turning around to grab something from the backseat of the car, or pulled a muscle just reaching over to pick something up.

“I have chronic pain, should I still try to exercise?”

o The short answer is “yes, absolutely”. However, the type of exercise you do might be different than the general advice I’m promoting in this post, so check with your physician. Many studies have looked at individuals with chronic pain (pain lasting more than three months) and found that those who were involved in a regular, consistent exercise program of 12 weeks or longer, saw improvement in their pain and an increase in mobility.
 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5491894/
 https://keck.usc.edu/news/afraid-to-exercise-due-to-chronic-pain/
 https://www.iasp-pain.org/resources/fact-sheets/integrative-physical-activity-and-exercise-to-address-acute-and-chronic-pain/

How many “steps” per day is recommended?

 The average American gets between 3,000 to 4,000 steps per day. The “how many do I need” question has been all over the board. Initially, the goal was 5,000 steps per day (less than 5,000 steps a day is actually considered sedentary), then we heard 10,000 (based on a Japanese study), and more recently it seems to be between 6,000-8,000 steps per day. There is some variation on the recommendations (e.g. How old are you? Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to improve heart function?), but 6,000-8,000 steps per day is a good goal for the average person.
 https://utswmed.org/medblog/how-many-steps-per-day/
 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-many-steps-should-you-take-a-day

The amount time it takes for you to get your steps matters.

 A new study looking at number of steps, and time taken to get those steps, shows that the time matters. It was a study of over 33,000 people and if they got their steps in periods of less than 5 minutes, 5-10 minutes, 10-15 minutes or more than 15 minutes. During the study, after adjustments, those in the “less than 5 minutes” group had a 5.13% risk of death, but those in the “greater than 15 minutes” had a 0.86% risk of death. They were all getting in around 8,000 steps or less per day.
 Take home point – you may get a lot of steps in during the day just from your normal routines (which is better than sitting), but you really need to make sure you are getting dedicated “step time” (more than 15 minutes at a time).
 https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-01547

Exercise boosts your immune system in fighting cancer

o In a study of 889 patients that had colon cancer, those that participated in an exercise program along with their chemotherapy lived longer, and were “disease free” longer.
o https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2502760
o For women that have had, or are recovering from, breast cancer, we have a study showing that resistance training or high intensity interval training (HIT) can increase anti-cancer biochemicals in the body to help reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence in survivors. Very cool.
o https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10549-025-07772-w
o Your gut (microbiome) is really important in supporting your immune system. We have data that shows how exercise uses your gut bacteria to increase the immune systems’ ability to specifically fight cancer.
o https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00684-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867425006841%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Exercise improves cognition after stroke

o A study of about 104 people who survived a stroke were studied based on those who underwent an 8-week cardio exercise program and those who didn’t. The one’s that exercised saw significant improvement in cognition. This is a small study, and the length of exercise was short, but it would be reasonable to assume that continued, regular exercise would produce positive benefits to post-stroke patients.
o https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2838026?&utm_source=BulletinHealthCare&utm_medium=email&utm_term=082725&utm_content=MEMBER&utm_campaign=article_alert-morning_rounds_daily&utm_uid=3535069&utm_effort=DAMR01

Kids need exercise too.

o A study looked at over 5,000 obese or overweight children/teens from ages 5-19, that were put into exercise programs from 8-48 weeks in length and compared them with those that didn’t participate. Guess what the results were? Yup, you guessed it. They magically lost weight and saw improvements in cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood sugar levels and fasting insulin levels. -back-real-PE-in-school
o https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13102-025-01228-w
o It also significantly improves their depression and anxiety symptoms (21 studies of 38,000 kids). With all the mental health issues in our youth, high rates of screen time and social media problems, like, seriously. We can do better for our kids.
o https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(25)00208-4/fulltext

“Well, just how big of a boy are you?”

o Ok, do you want to know the latest test to evaluate your “fitness” in terms of how long you may live? The “Sit and Rise Test” seems to be most recent test to predict it. Basically, you start from a standing position and slowly lower yourself to a seated position on the floor. Then you rise from that seated position. The key is that you’re not supposed to use anything for balance (including your hands/arms/wall/chair). There is a 0-10 point system based on how much assistance you need to do it with a 10 being ‘no assistance at all’. A study of over 4200 people aged 46-75 showed that those scoring from 0-4 had a 42% increased risk of death compared to those who scored a ten (3.7% risk). See the link below for more information.
o https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40569873/
o https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf325/8163161?login=false
o Another test of fitness/life longevity is the “grip strength test”. It measures your ability to tightly grip something for 3-5 seconds. There is discussion about this being tagged as another “vital sign”. I think more data is needed.
o https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10777545/ #:~:text=Relative%20HGS%20takes%20into%20account,disorders%20%5B15%E2%80%9317%5D.

Can you exercise too much?

o You can do too much of anything. You can drink too much water, you can get too much oxygen, you can spend too much time with family……. tis the season. Exercise is no different. Moderation is the key in most everything.
o There was a 30-year study of 4,897 twins (we like twin studies because we can exclude genetic factors). They actually found what’s called a “U shaped curve”. That means those that didn’t do anything were on the far left, those that participated in moderate exercise were in the middle, and those that were highly active were on the far right. After adjustments, those in the highly active group were considered biologically older (1.2 years) than those in the moderate group. In some regards this makes sense. You can overdo it when exercising and wear out joints and muscles, and you can also injure yourself. However, it’s important to note that both exercise groups saw a 7% reduction in death compared to the “did nothing” group. Meaning that doing something is better than nothing, and that there is a maximum benefit you can get from exercise.
o https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-024-01200-x

Short amounts of vigorous exercise can help your heart.

o A study looked at “vigorous exercise”. That’s high intensity exercise that gets your heart rate up quickly, and gets you breathing heavy – like sprinting. In this paper they looked at middle-aged women doing short bursts of exercise (as little as 3 minutes/day), and found a 45% lower risk for major cardiac events (heart attack or stroke). Wow, that’s impressive. Most of the exercise bursts were less than a minute, and were performed several times a day. This study dispels the idea that you don’t see any benefit for exercise under 10 minutes, but remember that this is specifically referring to vigorous or high intensity exercise. It’s good news for those with a packed schedule.
o https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/5/316

Doing something is better than doing nothing.

o Even light exercise is better than sitting still. This study looked at 45,176 females in the Nurses’ Health Study and found that replacing television time with light activity improved physical fitness and overall wellbeing. The take home point is to just start somewhere. A walk around your neighborhood once or twice a week would be great. Park farther away at the grocery store so that you have walk more (I looked it up, it’s “farther” and not “further”. It looked weird to me too.), take the stairs instead of the elevator, ride a bike, whatever you can find in your life to increase your activity. It really does make a difference. It matters now, and it will certainly matter later.
o https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2819832?&utm_source=BulletinHealthCare&utm_medium=email&utm_term=071824&utm_content=MEMBER&utm_campaign=article_alert-morning_rounds_daily&utm_uid=3535069&utm_effort=MRNRD0

Don’t like working out? Join the club. Literally. Join a fitness club, and get a trainer. It is absolutely worth the money.

o I actually didn’t’ start working out regularly until medical school. I found it really helped having that as part of my routine. For years I did yoga on Monday, ran on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and lifted weights on Wednesdays and Fridays. It was ok, and I was in decent shape with that schedule, but over time I felt like I was missing something. Last year I tried a CrossFit class and immediately noticed a change in my energy level, strength, and overall fitness. The type of exercises in the class certainly helped, but there was something else that made the difference. It might sound strange, but I needed someone to hold me accountable. I like yoga, but I learned that I can’t do yoga on my own because I’ll cut corners (my yoga instructor will smooth call me out if I skimp on half pigeon). The same thing was true when I worked out with weights on my own. Likewise, my cross fit instructor wastes no time in telling me my squat form sucks (thanks Lane).
o Another thing is to set reasonable goals. Studies show that you are more likely to workout if you have a goal. Sign up for that 5k that’s coming up in 6-8 months and start walking today. “From Couch to 5K” is a very popular nine week approach to completing your first 5k.

11/02/2025

Weekly radio segment that i do with Brandon Baxter In The Morning where we cover whatever he and Kelly want to discuss.

https://soundcloud.com/brandonbaxterinthemorning/doc-talk-with-dr-shane-speights-you-dont-have-to-feel-bad-just-because-youre-getting-older-food-recalls-genetics-your-weight-102925?si=51adb79799944043809b10d5190c2819&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing Wednesday October....

10/31/2025

Ok. Here we go. Diet, Activity, Sleep, and Mental Wellness.

Let’s start with diet.

Remember, we’re all human, it’s unlikely that you will adopt all of these recommendations, but you need to start somewhere. Pick some easy “wins” at first. Also, you need to set goals on adding more of these approaches to your diet over time. Like, literally put reminders in your calendar over the next year or so.

Trying to lose weight? Rule # 1 – you didn’t gain your weight over a period of weeks or months, it is inappropriate to think you should lose it in that time period. Actual, sustained, weight loss is something that happens over years through lifestyle change. Your goal should be to adopt changes that will help you live longer and healthier, in doing so you will likely achieve whatever your healthy weight will be.

Diet 101

- The Mediterranean Diet is hands down the diet that has the most medical evidence and research in terms of living longer, and living better. Unfortunately, it’s not the easiest diet in terms of cooking at home, but there are some general parts of the diet that everyone can implement almost immediately.

o Basically, you need to eat more fresh/raw fruits and vegetables, beans, grains, oats, nuts, and fish.
“But Dr. Speights, I don’t like any fruits, and I don’t eat vegetables……”. What are you, four? Want to feel better, live better and longer? Figure it out. I understand you may not like it all (I still hate mushrooms, sorry mom), But I guarantee you that there are fruits and vegetables out there that you would be fine eating. Seriously. People that live the longest and healthiest typically eat primarily plant-based diets (potato chips don’t count – nice try).

 https://www.mayoclinic.org/.../mediterran.../art-20047801....
 https://lifestylemedicine.stanford.edu/mediterranean.../
 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/.../16037-mediterranean-diet

o Stay away from processed meats (lunch meats, packaged/cooked meats, etc.). Limit red meat to about two servings a week and make sure it’s lean red meat when you do eat it. By the way, red meat includes pork and lamb.

Higher amounts of red and processed meats have a link to increased risk of colon and gastric cancers due to the nitrate/nitrite content, especially in people under the age of 40. There have also been links to increased heart disease and Type II Diabetes.

 https://www.mdanderson.org/.../processed-meat-and-cancer...
 https://progressreport.cancer.gov/.../diet_alcohol/red_meat
 https://www.aicr.org/.../processed-meats-increase.../

o Fish is good for you, especially those with higher amounts omega 3 fatty acids, just make sure the fish doesn’t have high amounts of lead or mercury (be careful with canned tuna).

Can I take Omega 3 fatty acid supplements instead (fish oil capsules)?
I don’t recommend it. Recent students have shown that fish oil supplements have a link to an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (a common irregular heart beat in the elderly that can increase the risk of stroke). Strangely, the risk was only associated with the fish oil capsules, not eating fish oil naturally through your diet.

• https://jamanetwork.com/jou.../jama/article-abstract/2820294
• https://www.cedars-sinai.org/.../omega-3-supplements.../

o A quick word on supplements – your body is not expecting to get its nutrients through a pill (i.e. vitamin or supplement). You need to work to get all your vitamins and nutrients through your diet in a natural form. We are finding out that there’s more to it than just packing a vitamin into a pill form. There was also a really big study on vitamin supplements looking at: did they live longer, have less heart disease, less dementia, fewer cancers, and several other diseases, the answer was “no”. It didn’t protect you from anything. If you get your vitamins and nutrients in your diet, taking supplements doesn’t help you.

 Is there ever a reason to take vitamins?
Yes, if you are unable to get your nutrients and vitamins through your diet, then the pill form is better than nothing. Just understand that you are likely not getting the full effect. There are also some diseases that require a higher amount of a certain vitamin than you can get in your diet.

 The USPSTF looked at 84 studies involving over 700,000 patients.
• No benefit in preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, or death.

• https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsh.../MVMS-HealthProfessional/....
 https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/.../is-there-really-any...

o Chicken is ok, but there is new evidence that you may not want too much of it either (more than two chicken breasts a week may increase the risk of gastric cancer). But it’s still early in the research to know for sure. Grilled better than fried (sorry Colonel).

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/.../could-eating-chicken...

o When you look at your plate, meat should only take up a quarter of it. The rest should be plant based.

 Potatoes are good for you. Not sure why they got such a bad rap, but they are filling and have plenty of vitamins/nutrients (especially eating the skin).

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/.../its-ok-to-say...

- Breakfast should be the largest meal of the day, and it should be early (before 8:00 am)
You are hurting yourself by skipping breakfast. I’m amazed at the number of young patients I see that don’t eat their first meal until the afternoon. Here’s the deal – you use (and need) most of your energy during the day, not giving your body what it needs until noon is a bad idea. Some data has linked eating breakfast to weight loss, but it appears to be more about eating your largest meal of the day before 3:00 pm.

o Examples - Fruit, yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, granola, cereal (minimally processed)
Limit ham, bacon and sausage (processed meats – specifically the nitrates/nitrites)

 Are processed foods really a thing?
Yeah, it’s true that highly processed foods are not good for you, but most all foods are “processed” to some level. Basically, if it tastes really good – packaged cookies, candy, cakes, donuts, chips, etc. then it’s probably bad for you (although the industry is changing, for the better). A minimally processed cereal is like plain corn flakes, plain cheerios, plain rice crispies, etc. Start reading labels if you don’t already. Try to stay away from ingredients you can’t pronounce or need a chemistry degree to understand.

- Eat a medium sized lunch. If you prefer to have a larger lunch than breakfast, that’s ok. You just need to make one of them larger than dinner, and you don’t need to skip breakfast.

- Dinner should be your smallest meal of the day, and it should be earlier (the earlier the better, no later than 7:00 pm – or at least 3 hours before you go to bed). If you skip any meal, dinner is the one to skip – but I don’t recommend that from the mental wellness aspect. Dinner is typically when everyone is home, and can sit down together. Those connections and conversations are really important, remember mental wellness is just as important as your diet.
o In the South we typically eat our largest meal at dinner. The issue is that we usually hang out on the couch, or go to sleep after that and those calories just “sit” there. It’s really tough on your gut, increases the likelihood of reflux, constipation, and has links to higher “all-cause mortality” – that means a higher risk of death from any cause.

- Rule of thumb – generally speaking, the earlier the better on when you eat breakfast and dinner. When you eat, and how much, really matters in your overall health.

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38479908/
 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/.../is-breakfast-really...
 https://wellbeing.jhu.edu/.../timing-is-everything-why.../
 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6893547/
 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6520689/
 https://www.advisory.com/.../2024/02/05/late-night-eating....
 https://www.abpsus.org/myles-spar-on-health-risks-of.../...

- Intermittent Fasting - If you are trying to lose weight (based on recent numbers 40% of the U.S. population needs to), the single best way to do it is by changing the timing of your meals – intermittent fasting. It actually works. I was suspicious at first (I’m a skeptical optimist at heart), but now there is really good data to support it (27+ research studies). To be clear, I’m not an advocate for skipping meals, but I think the timing is important.

o How does it work?
Everyone is a little different, but generally speaking your body stores glucose (sugar) in your liver, and keeps about 10-12 hours’ worth that is used for all your bodily functions. After the glucose stores are all used up, your body switches to a less efficient way to produce energy – ketosis, and burns fat until glucose arrives (aka you eat again).

• Please understand that ketosis is not a good state to be in. It’s not how your body would prefer to burn energy, it’s a backup process to keep you alive. But if you need to lose weight, this is probably the easiest way to do it while you are changing your diet and increasing activity.

 There are different approaches – eat for 8 hours, fast for 16 hours; eat for 10, fast for 14; eat for 12, fast for 12; etc. The longer the fast, the more fat burned.
 Basically, if you can take in your last calories of the day by 6:00 or 7:00 pm, then not take in calories until breakfast the next day, you’ll lose weight.

 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7021351/
 https://hsph.harvard.edu/.../intermittent-fasting-may-be.../

- You should try to stay away from sodas, energy drinks, diet drinks (the latest research on artificial sweeteners is not good). Or at least limit them, and work on getting them out of your diet.

o What about the diet sodas?
The issue is the artificial sweeteners they use.
Data now says they mess up your gut bacteria (big deal), can increase cognitive decline, and increase the risk of diabetes. It’s actually a tough substance to study in the population, and to be transparent, some studies have shown no link at all. But based on everything I’ve seen on these the past several years, where there’s smoke……

 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/.../several-sugar...
 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10822749/
 https://cdn.nutrition.org/article/S2475-2991(25)02494-1/pdf

o What about cane sugar?
It’s still sugar (aka sucrose = 50% glucose + 50% fructose), but it’s probably the lesser of two evils.

o Is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) bad for you?
It depends. HFCS is made from corn, and the chemical makeup is variable, but typically 55% fructose and 45% glucose. Your body uses glucose as its main energy source, and it is used by your cells all over the body. Fructose must be broken down in the liver first before it can be used as energy. This bypass of the main energy producing step (glycolysis) can contribute to higher amounts of fatty acids and triglycerides (higher risk of diabetes, obesity and fatty liver disease).

 The issue is more around the amount of sugar you take in (from any source).

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12037248/....

- No caffeine after 3:00 pm

The half-life (how long it takes your body to break down half of a drug) of caffeine is anywhere from 2-12 hours depending on how your body processes it. The average person breaks half of it down in 5-6 hours. That means that if you have that coffee at 3:00 pm, then half of the caffeine is still circulating in your body around 9:00 pm. Caffeine absolutely interferes with REM sleep. I’ve had patients tell me they can still sleep after drinking coffee, and that may be true but they are screwing up their REM sleep and not hitting deep sleep – this can lead to chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression and worsening of chronic pain symptoms.

- Coffee good. There’s been some really good data on the benefits of drinking coffee (2-4 cups before noon), but not all coffee is the same. These studies are referencing plain black coffee, not the 2400 calorie coffee with caramel, 3 shots of espresso, and whipped cream……..that’ll be $9.00 and your first born child please…….

o Coffee can cause reflux, but they make a low/no acid coffee that works great. If you drink coffee, and have issues with reflux, making this switch can be really beneficial.

- Drink more water

o The average person in the U.S. is 1.2 liters short on water intake each day.
o Based on limited data (see video below), you should drink 11-15 cups of water a day (men need the higher end).
o If you wait until you’re thirsty, you’re already behind in your water intake.
o Most people underestimate how important water intake is in bodily functions.
o How much water should we really drink? This is a great YouTube on water intake.
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-U0nSMeFM

- Eat……....your……….food……….slowly………
o This is actually harder than you think, just try it.
 Take a bite of food, and chew it up. Before you put another bite into your mouth, completely chew and swallow the first bite.
o When we don’t completely chew our food we miss out on vitamins and nutrients in the food that are not broken down by stomach acid and the normal digestive process. Don’t believe me? …….corn………..nuts……….blueberries………I’ll stop there.

- A word on Alcohol (don’t shoot the messenger)

o There is no safe, or healthy, amount of alcohol.
 If you want to be as healthy as you can, you should drink none, or limit your intake to just a few drinks a month (yes, per month, and preferably not all at the same time). Also, try to have that drink 4-5 hours before you go to bed (that’s the half-life of alcohol).

o Based on the latest evidence (see links below), there is no benefit to drinking alcohol. This has changed completely just in the time that I’ve been a physician. I used to tell my patients that no more than one drink a day for women or two drinks a day for men was fine, and had some evidence of health benefits. That older data was re-examined and found to be flawed. Newer research tells us that alcohol is toxic to your cells, and damages pretty much every organ in the body.

o Alcohol interferes with sleep, increases the risk of dementia, heart damage, cancer, auto-immune disorders, and it makes reflux and chronic pain worse. Unfortunately, a recent report showed that alcohol related cancer deaths have doubled over the past 30 years.

o “What about those people in France and Europe that drink wine for every meal?”
 Yeah, that’s not working out well for them. Their pancreatic cancer rates are increasing significantly. They also have a big study showing that across Europe their dementia rate is higher for those that consume alcohol.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9476884/....

o “But it helps me wind down from the day, and I sleep better.”
 There is something to be said about “taking the edge off” after a long day, and there have been articles that speak to that piece. However, it doesn’t help you sleep, that’s a misunderstanding. You may actually fall asleep sooner, but alcohol actually interferes with REM sleep and prevents the body from entering deep sleep (when body repairs occur). Regular alcohol intake is one of the big reasons people are chronically tired.

o What about red wine?
 This one is a mixed bag. We do have evidence that red wine specifically has chemical components (antioxidants) that are good for your heart, however the actual alcohol molecules in the wine are also toxic to your cells (including heart cells). On one hand it shows some protective effects, but on the other it has the same issues other alcohols have – dementia, cancer, etc.
 My take home on red wine – if you want to drink an occasional (1-2 times a month) glass with dinner, I don’t see it shaving years off your life. But don’t drink red wine thinking that you’re making yourself healthier. An extra walk around the neighborhood will do you more good.

 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10146095/

o Here are all the references on alcohol
 https://ebm.bmj.com/.../early/2025/09/16/bmjebm-2025-113913
 https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/248149
 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004590
 https://jamanetwork.com/.../jamanetwo.../fullarticle/2822215
 https://www.jsad.com/doi/10.15288/jsad.23-00283