DrCarney.com Blog

Losing a child is every parent's worst fear. No one would argue that nurturing and protecting our children to the best of our ability should be one of our highest priorities. We make sure our children get enough sleep, do their homework, brush their teeth, limit their TV exposure, and enroll them in sports. Yet...

Losing a child is every parent's worst fear. No one would argue that nurturing and protecting our children to the best of our ability should be one of our highest priorities. We make sure our children get enough sleep, do their homework, brush their teeth, limit their TV exposure, and enroll them in sports. Yet...

Williams Cardiology

We are pleased to see more physicians incorporating diet, lifestyle, and preventive medicine into their medical practice. Dr. Shane Williams, a community cardiologist in Bracebridge Muskoka, Ontario is one such specialist. Dr. Williams has been eating a vegan diet since 2010 and has been using this same approach with his cardiac patients. In 2011 he...

If you're familiar with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., world famous and renowned author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, then you're familiar with the term "edothelial cells" and the role these cells play in the prevention of heart disease. The video below is a two-minute clip from the powerful documentary Forks Over Knives. Scientists discovered...

Scrambled, fried, hard boiled, or poached - there's a way to prepare eggs to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. I'm sure many people have fond memories of eating bacon and eggs for breakfast with their families on weekend mornings. Eggs are heavily advertised as being an excellent source of protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants...

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." These are wise words spoken by Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician, that is "considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine." The Hippocratic Oath which is named after Hippocrates, outlines medical ethics for doctors and is still used today. Part of the oath reads: "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone."

Sadly though, "medical care and errors" has become the third leading cause of death in the U.S. It is estimated that over 400,000 deaths per year are associated with medical error. Examples of this include infections in hospitals, unnecessary surgery, hospital errors, adverse reactions and interactions to prescription drugs, administration of the wrong drug to the wrong patient, and wrong diagnosis. The good news is that we can avoid many of these unnecessary treatments contributing to these statistics when we eat a health-supporting diet.

The statistics are distressing. Heart disease is our nation's leading cause of death for both men and women, resulting in a heart attack every 34 seconds. Eighty-one million Americans suffer from cardiovascular disease killing one out of every three people or 831,000 each year.

Will you be next? You may not have any symptoms of heart disease, or have been told that your cholesterol is within the "normal" range, yet these measures are not an accurate means of assessing your risk for heart disease. The majority of heart attacks occur in patients whose cholesterol is between "the normal range" of 150-200. In order to be truly protected, we should strive to maintain a total cholesterol level below 150. Heart disease is very rare in those with cholesterol levels this low. 

Low-carb, high-protein diets such as the Paleo or Zone diet, have become very popular, especially among many fitness-minded groups such as CrossFit. To their credit, low-carb diets such as the Paleo diet eschews dairy, refined foods, and added sugars/salts, although they severely limit complex carbohydrates which are the primary component of a whole-food, Starch-Smart® diet. Supporters of low-carb diets obtain the majority of their calories from animal protein and fat. No other diet has generated as much emotion or controversy as these low-carb diets have.  (Information regarding whole grains can be seen here.)

Are eggs really that "incredible" or are the industry's marketing strategies "incredible?" You might be surprised to learn how big industries use clever marketing strategies to boost the sale of their products. One technique that Dr. John McDougall talks about is called "unique positioning," which involves highlighting a particular nutrient which is plentiful in the product....

You will absolutely enjoy watching the short video clips from the eye-opening documentary Processed People (from Veg Source) featuring interviews from many of our nation's leading health and nutrition experts. There are a total of 14 clips, each between one-two minutes in length. Plant-based health advocates such as John Robbins, Jeff Novick, Doctors John McDougall, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., Jay Gordon, Joel Fuhrman, Pam Popper, Milton Mills, and Jeffrey Masson discuss what we can do to prevent becoming "Processed People."

Processed People is a 40-minute snapshot of how our nation's "health care system" has become a profit-driven "sick care system." This system has become very successful in selling sickness by adopting a pill or surgical procedure mentality to solve every health care problem.

Wartime history provides us with important information regarding the correlation between animal-based diets and morbidity-mortality rates as documented in the references below. The first reference highlights Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. He explains how deaths from coronary artery disease plummeted during World War II, from 1939-1945. The Germans confiscated all of the livestock and farm animals...

Heart disease kills one out of every 3 Americans. Will you or your family members be one of them? Chances are, if you consume the typical American diet, you could very well be at high risk for a fatal heart attack. Educating ourselves is the first step towards reducing our risk for cardiovascular disease. As...