Blog | Lesley James MD

May 5, 2022May 6, 2022

Cook your way to a healthy lifestyle.

One of the things that I find really constructive to creating a healthy lifestyle is cooking. Becoming familiar with cooking meals allows you to feed yourself with exactly what specifically your body needs. Feeling comfortable enough with making substitutions in recipes so that they better nourish yourself is an essential step to achieving overall wellness. Additionally, by cooking at home rather than eating out, you can ideally reduce the amount of processed foods you are eating. Eliminating as many processed foods from your diet as possible is another crucial step to a healthier lifestyle. Also, I think it’s really important to cook and eat food that you actually like. Sometimes eating healthy can feel like a sacrifice, like you have to cut out foods that you really like, and lose joy in eating. By cooking, you can learn to make the delicious dishes that you want, and realize that healthy food is actually really tasty!

April 18, 2022May 5, 2022

Elevated Levels of Heavy Metals are Common and Concerning

For the past decade I have monitored patients for heavy metals, specifically lead and mercury. I find elevated levels on a weekly basis and, sadly, these results no longer surprise me.

February 25, 2022March 3, 2022

Somewhere In Between: Estrogen Dominance

As an MD and fellowship-trained Integrative Physician, I am often asked about “health conditions” that are not recognized by the medical community and do not qualify as medical diagnoses for a number of reasons: (a) there may be an evolving theory that has not been thoroughly researched, and/or (b) there may be an oversimplified physiologic process or finding that, while having some science, lacks consistent connections to the disease process or outcomes. Some theories, when fully investigated, may in time come to be recognized while others will not – the scientific method is a lengthy process. When approached with these “conditions,” I often find myself “somewhere in between” and I continually pour over new research outcomes in an effort to treat patients who are feeling unwell. While I am sympathetic to those who are frustrated with the pace of medicine and the lack of answers pertaining to their health, we must remember that little truths that are strung together produce interesting headlines, but do not make for sound medical practices. This is the final entry in a three-part series.

February 14, 2022February 16, 2022

Salt: How Much is Too Much?

Recently I was surprised when a patient who was newly diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure) mentioned that she had not been advised to cut back on salt, even after consulting with a nutritionist. This is concerning, as, according to the CDC, it is estimated that 90 percent of Americans ages 2 years and above consume too much salt (sodium), and that 2.5 million deaths around the world could be prevented if our salt consumption was reduced to meet the levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

August 6, 2021August 10, 2021

Somewhere In Between: Adrenal Fatigue

April 20, 2021April 21, 2021

Somewhere In Between: Leaky Gut

As an MD and fellowship-trained Integrative Physician, I am often asked about “health conditions” that are not recognized by the medical community and do not qualify as medical diagnoses for a number of reasons: (a) there may be an evolving theory that has not been thoroughly researched, and/or (b) there may be an oversimplified physiologic process or finding that, while having some science, lacks consistent connections to the disease process or outcomes. Some theories, when fully investigated, may in time come to be recognized while others will not–the scientific method is a lengthy process. When approached with these “conditions,” I often find myself “somewhere in between” and I continually pour over new research outcomes in an effort to treat patients who are feeling unwell. While I am sympathetic to those who are frustrated with the pace of medicine and the lack of answers pertaining to their health, we must remember that little truths that are strung together produce interesting headlines, but do not make for sound medical practices. This is the first in a three-part series.

February 25, 2021February 25, 2021

Timing Matters when Intermittent Fasting

In the 15th century, the word breakfast became used to describe “breaking the fast.” However, when many people start intermittent fasting they tend to skip breakfast and begin eating at lunchtime. Unfortunately they are undermining their weight loss goals, as studies show that the benefits of fasting tend to be diminished when calories are shifted to the latter part of the day.

February 8, 2021February 15, 2021

What is a Healthy Glucose Level?

Recently I wrote about continuous glucose monitors, advanced technology for measuring glucose levels. Now that we know how glucose is measured and the available data, it’s important to explore what constitutes a “normal” glucose level.

February 1, 2021February 7, 2021

New Continuous Glucose Monitors in the Office

Last year a statistic was published stating that only 12% of the population is considered metabolically healthy. Although alarming, this figure didn’t surprise me, as very often I see patients with metabolic issues such as elevated blood sugar, cholesterol and BMI. As a preventive integrative physician, it is not my initial reaction to send patients to the pharmacy, but rather to offer information on practical lifestyle changes that may bring the numbers down into a normal range.

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021

Gut-Wrenching Facts about Processed Foods

Most nutrition experts agree on a fundamental belief made famous by author Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mainly plants.” Pollan’s writings reflect that “food” refers to real, unprocessed food, and that what Americans buy in supermarkets and consume is, for the most part, far from real.