The Health Bridge

Summer Bock returns to the Health Bridge! In this discussion, naturally formed probiotics take center stage. She and Pedram Shojai discuss helpful tricks to try in the comfort of your home to acquire heightened health.

Can food be an addiction? On this episode of The Health Bridge, Pedram Shojai invites Susan Peirce Thompson as they discuss the psychology behind food cravings and how the mind can have trouble controlling them. Susan opens up to Pedram about the struggles she had with her own weight and addiction to other substances besides food. Are some people susceptible to becoming addicted to things in general more than other people? Is there a way to break a cycle of addiction?

We've talked about gluten on The Health Bridge previously. Pedram returns to the subject and invites Peter Osborne to expand on the how gluten can affect the human body. He helps explain why grains in particular can be harmful. Are grains meant to be eaten? Why are grains believed to be such an important part of a balanced diet? What sort of immune responses can be triggered by grains? And are all grains created equal?

For some of us, when we set a goal to become healthy by introducing exercise and exorcising bad foods, we REALLY stick to that goal. We might really stick to not eating excess fats and avoid gluten or dairy or both completely. Of course this might make living in the real world a little difficult. Choosing a place to meet a friend for lunch suddenly became much more tedious, but stick to it! You want to be healthy, right? But when does this become an obsession that affects us beyond our physical health? On this episode of The Health Bridge, Pedram Shojai welcomes Marc David back to the podcast to talk about orthorexia, an obsession with avoiding foods believed to be unhealthy. How can a strict focus on being healthy affect our relationships to other people and our overall enjoyment of life?

It's one of the more recent trend words when it comes to diets: gluten. You may know someone who is avoiding gluten. You yourself might be trying to avoid gluten. You've read about it and you've heard your friends and co-workers all talk about it, but what is gluten and why can it be harmful? On this episode of The Health Bridge, Pedram Shojai (still flying solo) welcomes Tom O'Bryan to the podcast. Tom explains to Pedram exactly what gluten is and how it may affect people that eat large amounts. How can you tell if it's affecting you? Should you think about avoiding gluten?

After a long break we're back with a new episode of The Health Bridge. Sara Gottfried wasn't able to attend this recording, but Robyn Youkilis visited Pedram Shojai at his offices in Orange County and of course we had to break out the equipment to record an episode for the podcast! Pedram and Robyn discuss the different ways food can help or hurt health. Robyn discusses ways she has found to keep food not only healthy but tasty. She talks in depth about her relationship to food. She talks about ways to keep healthy even when she's not in her own kitchen. How is she able to eat a healthy meal even if she visits a restaurant that might not have completely healthy options?

Abel James returns to The Health Bridge! Recently Abel and his wife sold their house and a large amount of their possessions, downsized to an RV and traveled the country. He shares with Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai the story of his experience cutting strong ties to email and other technology. What effects does declaring technology bankruptcy form? What sort of rejuvenation can be gained by declaring time wealth? So often we're looking to please others but do we stop to do something good for ourselves? The trio also move to the topic of food and they discuss the love that should exist for the ritual of eating.

How strong are our connections to food? For some people, food is just a necessity but for many others, food is an experience. For those without a strong connection to food, how can food be transformed to be enjoyed rather than just a thing we shovel into our mouths? This week on The Health Bridge, Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai welcome guest Rebecca Katz. She's a chef with formal training from the Natural Culinary Institute. To her food can be a transformative experience. She tells the story of cooking for her father who was fighting cancer and how food doesn't have to be a sullen experience and how food can be the highlight of a person's day. How can food be used to empower people? How can food help us operate at peak capacity?

Tom Malterre, friend of Pedram and Sara's, returns to the Health Bridge! In this episode he talks about elimination diets. Elimination diets have been around for decades, yet when we become sick we rarely think of the foods we eat as a suspect. In what different ways can the foods we eat make us sick? It's clear that some foods are healthy and others are unhealthy, but what exactly does that mean? Can foods affect the way our bodies function? And how can different foods have different effects on the body?

You may have noticed that our Health Bridge releases have been very sporadic over the last few weeks. There is in fact a reason for this. It's not that Pedram and Sara aren't prioritizing this show. No, in fact on January 31st Sara fell and hit her head and had to take it easy for some time. Sara has a very open discussion with Pedram on how this incident forced changes in her behavior and how it affected her family as well. How can brain injuries change the way people's brains work? And how can we best maintain balance in our lives before an injury forces us into balance?

"We're destined to be old," says guest Christiane Northrup. But does that mean we actually have to be old in spirit? Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai welcome Christiane Northrup as they discuss what it means to age and why a chronological age does NOT have to indicate our biological age. They also discuss the different mindsets people may have at different ages and ways we can derive pleasure from mindfulness. Why is it difficult for some people to love their own company? Why must we all try to conform to a herd? When we begin acting like an old person, are we allowing our bodies to age or can we delay aging by continuing to hold on to youthfulness?

The topic of vaccines is one that garnered a big reaction from our audience when The Health Bridge covered the measles outbreak at Disneyland. The response was so strong that Pedram Shojai and Sara Gottfried wanted to continue the conversation. Unfortunately, Sara fell sick right before this recording, so Pedram runs this one solo as he welcomed guests Jeff Hays and Louise Habakus. Jeff Hays is a filmmaker whose upcoming film, "Bought," deals with the topic of vaccine manufacturers and their practices. Louise Habakus appears in the film and is the founding director of Center for Personal Rights and lead radio host of Fearless Parent Radio. A lot of the responses we received conveyed opinion that Sara and Pedram were lacking information outside of CDC research. Jeff and Louise were invited to try to educate the hosts more on what you, the listeners, felt was lacking in the previous episode. What is most important to consider is that we must all be open to all the information is out there. Vaccination is a comp

It's an issue that many people have, but might feel somewhat embarrassed to talk about: Pelvic pain. This week on The Health Bridge, Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai welcome their friend Michael Yang. He dives into the topic of pelvic pain, discussing how chronic the pain can be as well as how underdiagnosed it can be. What sort of pain can be experienced in the pelvic region? How does pain affect women and men differently? Michael also dives into the connection between pain and the brain. How much of pain is psychological? How does a psychological mindset also affect other factors of our health? What role does it play in weight loss, for example?

With a full month having come and gone in January, many of us may have already fallen off of sticking with our New Year's Resolutions. What if the problem of sticking with a new diet or exercise regime isn't that we're having problems commiting, but that we have a spouse that is just completely unsupportive? This week on the Health Bridge Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai discuss the topic of toxic spouses. How can we overcome a spouse that won't adjust their diet to match one we're going on? Is it required that the spouse go on a diet if we're going on a diet? Could it be that we're not supporting their needs as well? Or is it a matter of convincing our spouse that changing a diet or adding in an exercise routine is for the best? Sara and Pedram discuss their experiences with their own spouses and what has happened when they try to introduce big changes.

100th episode! And boy do we have a good one! This week Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai welcome Jay Lombard to The Health Bridge. Jay co-founded Genomind which specializes in psychiatry and neurology. The three focus in on the biology of depression. What kind of genetic predispositions might lead to depression? What role does external factors play in determining mental health? Are there any ways to modulate the risk of depression? And what role does physical exercise have in the risk of depression?

We spend eight hours of our days, five days a week, week in and week out at work. It's a significant part of our lives. But while at work are we keeping the same strict standards on ourselves that we may keep at home? On this episode of The Health Bridge, Pedram Shojai and Sara Gottfried discuss different ways to stay healthy while at work. For some, we may be sitting at a desk all day in an office environment. How can we create new habits and make them stick in an environment that might be filled with lots of temptations, whether it's the candy at someone else's desk or unhealthy snack items offered in the lunch room?

Over the holiday break, Sara Gottfried and her husband heard a story on NPR regarding fasting and she was enthusiastic about talking about the topic on The Health Bridge with Pedram Shojai. Are there benefits to fasting? How often should someone fast? What are the possible positive outcomes for fasting? If you're thinking about fasting, what is a healthy way to fast? Just as important as fasting in a healthy manner is how you come out of a fast and Pedram and Sara discuss how to come out of a fast as well.

More than four dozen people have been diagnosed with measles in conjunction with recent trips to Disneyland or the adjacent Disneyland California Adventure Park. As Pedram lives in Orange County where the parks are located, this is a story that certainly hits close to home. This week on The Health Bridge, Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai discuss the measles virus, how it can spread, and how a virus that has been declared eradicated can suddenly have another outbreak. Does the rising number of parents wary of vaccinating their children have any correlation to this recent outbreak? How can parents let their kids enjoy life without smothering them too much when trying to shield them from dangers such as measles?

Sara Gottfried has been hard at work on a book and it's finally ready to be presented! Sara's new book, "The Hormone Reset," has led Sara on quite the journey of discovery. Pedram Shojai discusses with her the process of writing a book while working full time and managing the kids. Sara mentions how the book made her more aware of the different approaches that can exist to becoming a fitter person. Sara reflects on the changes she saw in her own body in her thirties and the importance of managing estrogen. How important is it to be proactive about our hormones as we grow older? This one's explicit just because Pedram calls Sara a "bad@$$" which we must admit is not untrue.

Happy New Year! The beginning of a new year can signify new beginnings. It's a chance to make changes in our lives and begin anew. But for some we make resolutions that are basically dropped and forgotten by January 2nd. How can we make 2015 different? Sara Gottfried and Pedram Shojai welcome 2015 on The Health Bridge and talk about how to lock in those goals and achieve them. How can the people around us affect the success rate of our goals? How can we turn a new action into a long-lasting habit? Let's make 2015 the best year yet!