Summary: Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.Here you'll find the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions posed by Healthy Talk fans. Listen in because what you know helps ensure healthy choices you can live with. Today on Healthy Talk, you wanted to know: Your recent guest advised not eating chocolate because he thought the casing in the chocolate was inflammatory to the joints. The problem with this is plants don't make casing. If there's casing in chocolate, it's because the manufacturer used milk to process it. Most dark chocolates, such as those at 85 percent cocoa, aren't made with milk products and therefore have no casing in it. Yes, so this is correct. Cocoa hasn't gone through the processing and therefore doesn't have casing. However, what the guest was talking about was opening up a Snickers, Hershey's, or other milk chocolate candy wrapper and eating it. Those examples have been processed with milk and can cause inflammation in your body. What's the point of taking the same probiotic everyday? Since bacteria divides very quickly, the gut is no longer the perfect growth medium for healthy gut bacteria. When you take a protbitic pill it's (in theory) supposed to release the healthy bacteria and help balance your gut out. It might be wise to cycle your probiotics throughout the week. Should you cycle curcumin? It appears that this supplement works by hormesis. Hormesis is the theory that a little bit of a stressor goes a long way and it stimulates protective processes in your body. Dr. Mike believes in this theory and thinks that by cycling through nutrients like curcumin during the week is fine. If you have a health question or concern, Dr. Mike encourages you to write him at askdrmikesmith@radiomd.com or call in, toll-free, to the LIVE radio show (1.844.305.7800) so he can provide you with support and helpful advice.
