Here's How Dr. Mercola Takes Control of His Health

By Dr. Mercola

It's hard to believe, but Mercola.com now celebrates its 19th anniversary. I launched the first, much smaller version of this website in 1997 to share the latest developments in natural health with the world.

Thanks to health-conscious readers like you, it's grown to become a leading source of health news and information, with more than 10 million unique visitors each month and more than 80 million unique visitors every year.

During my active practice days I helped tens of thousands of patients address their health problems using strategies such as diet and exercise and other safe and effective means, but I was convinced I could help educate order of magnitudes more on how to get healthy through this newsletter.

Based on the feedback I've been getting through the years, this strategy has proved itself a resounding success, as many readers report having regained their health by following the advice given here.

Many have asked me to share the details of my own lifestyle — in fact, that's the most frequently asked question — and the above "A Day in the Life" video was created to satisfy that request. I hope you enjoy it.

It's only 25 minutes long and goes through what my typical day looks like. I'll also provide a summary of it below, but I would really encourage you to watch the video.

Science and Common Sense Make Good Partners

While my reputation as a highly controversial character has been a persistent one, my views and recommendations have always been based on the weight of scientific evidence, my personal experience and common sense.

Many times my "controversial" recommendations have ultimately been proven beyond dispute and become the new standard of care. It's a sad fact that it typically takes decades before scientific truths become widely adopted.

There are two primary factors that are usually responsible for this: professional fear for going against standard practices and powerful corporate interests that benefit from the existing standards.

Those who wait until given the thumbs up to change by the mainstream establishment usually end up hurting their health far longer than necessary.

Throughout this 19-year journey, we've consistently shared the news long (frequently years) before the mainstream, giving millions of people the benefit of not having to wait and needlessly suffer or die prematurely.

A Forerunner in Health News

For example, I exposed Merck's drug, Vioxx, for the killer that it was years before major media started reporting it. I actually issued the first public warning about Vioxx while it was still in clinical trials — a year before it became available by prescription and eventually killed 60,000.

I also warned about the emergence of statin drugs, which I stated were a disaster in the making. My first warnings were issued in 2001. Fast-forward to a decade and a half later and the truth of this has become quite evident, and the dangers of statins are now well-documented.

Three years ago I began issuing a similar warning for the next-gen cholesterol drugs, PCSK9 inhibitors, which were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2015. I predict this class of drugs may be even more dangerous than statins.

I was also among the first to widely educate people about the critical importance of vitamin D and sensible sun exposure for health and disease prevention, and the many benefits of astaxanthin.

Bringing Attention to Simple yet Life-Changing Lifestyle Modifications

More recently, I've focused much attention on educating people about the importance of continuous, non-exercise movement and the health risks associated with prolonged sitting — risks that cannot be counteracted by maintaining a regular fitness program.

I published my first articles on the dangers of sitting in 2011. The crucial importance of this advice became really crystal clear to me in 2013 after reading a book by Joan Vernikos, Ph.D.

Since then I've written extensively on this topic and the evidence that sitting is a major risk factor for chronic disease has started to become widely publicized by the mainstream media as well.

Compared to other subjects, this one developed legs rather rapidly, and a new corporate trend that encourages standing desks and increased movement at work has been successfully spawned. The emergence of commercially available fitness trackers likely helped push the information out.

I've also started bringing much needed attention to the importance of resolving mitochondrial dysfunction in order to prevent and treat chronic disease. I began writing about this in 2008 in relation to vaccine damage.

Over the past couple of years, I've come to recognize that this is likely THE key to resolving many if not most health problems people suffer with. Mitochondrial dysfunction plays an integral role in everything from obesity and heart disease to autoimmune disorders and cancer.

In fact, I firmly believe that by addressing mitochondrial dysfunction — which can be done through specific dietary, nutritional and exercise measures — cancer can be successfully averted or treated, and this is the focus of my new book.

My Morning Routine — Getting the Day Started Right

My day typically begins around 6 a.m. The first thing I do is prepare my breakfast meal for the day. Many believe it is very hard to eat a high-quality high-fat diet, but I will share my secrets with you today.

My Chocolate Fat Bomb recipe is a delicious mix of avocado, cocoa butter, and several other nutritious ingredients. This meal provides me 15 grams of protein, less than 10 grams of net carbs, 30 grams of fiber, 90 grams of fat and about 1,000 calories. I typically split it in half and eat it over two hours.

Each day, I also make sure to enter what I eat into Cronometer.com, a free nutrient tracker that, I believe, is the best and most accurate nutrient tracker out there. Using a nutrient tracker can be a very helpful tool if you're trying to lose weight or optimize your health.

After breakfast, I batch process my emails. I'm not tied to my computer all day long; rather, I check emails only at certain times. As discussed by Dr. Theo Compernolle, author of the book "Brain Chains," your email habits can really make or break your efficiency. He recommends batch processing at most four times a day, which I think is good advice.

As I showed you in last year's anniversary fitness update, I use a stand-up desk. In fact, I rarely sit down during the day and this has been enormously beneficial to my health. I spent decades sitting excessively, as most people do, and suffered severe back pain as a result.

I tried numerous different treatment strategies, with little success. My back pain didn't go away until I started spending most of my time standing up — yet more proof that in order to heal you have to address the root cause, which in this case was excessive sitting.

Workout and Gardening Routine

Next, I do my daily exercise, which consists of functional training with Arnold once a week, as you can see in the above video. I do another strength training session with Arnold, plus one at home. While you can certainly exercise on your own, it's great to have a trainer that can help point out your flaws and guide your fitness program so you don't get injured or hit a plateau.  

The other three days a week I typically do a 30-minute infrared sauna at 140 degrees Fahrenheit along with 5 grams of niacin and then follow that with 30 minutes of Peak Fitness with oxygen therapy.

I also check on my garden on most mornings. My home garden has about 60 fruit trees and I also grow sprouts, herbs and vegetables. I've been able to develop a really thriving garden using a combination of soil regeneration strategies such as ionic ocean minerals, biochar and wood chips, all of which I've written about in previous articles.

You can learn more about these methods by following the hyperlinks provided. In the video I also give a quick demonstration of how I grow my sprouts. The addition of biochar is really helpful for growing robust and healthy sprouts.

After processing another batch of emails, I bicycle a few minutes to the beach where I typically walk about 6 to 8 miles. Where I live, the beach is flat and pristine, making it a perfect environment for walking barefoot. This provides the added benefit of grounding, which has its own set of health benefits beyond the physical movement of walking.

Also, since I typically have a large amount of material to read, I bring my Kindle so I can read while walking. This helps me justify taking the time out to walk for an hour each day. If you're like me and want to be able to make sure you're meeting your personal goals for movement, exercise and sleep, I also review some of the benefits of fitness trackers, which I believe can be useful in several respects.

The one I'm currently using is a Fitness Ring, which is still difficult to get a hold of in the U.S. I particularly like the information it collects, such as sleep stats, heart rate variability and body temperature, which helps me assess whether I'm getting enough recovery time. While most people do not exercise enough, others tend to overdo it, and I've been guilty of pushing too hard myself. Of course it also tracks and provides reports on my movement, which helps me keep on track with my current goals.

Getting Sensible Sun Exposure Is a Core Health Habit

While I do wear a hat to protect my face from excessive sun exposure, I wear short sleeves and shorts during my beach walk to make sure I get plenty of sun exposure. This way I can maintain a healthy vitamin D level without requiring a supplement.

I made the decision long ago that I would try to maintain the healthiest lifestyle possible, which is why I eventually moved to a location where I can benefit from things like grounding and daily sun exposure more or less year-round. I'm not saying it's easy, but if you're committed to a certain lifestyle, moving to a new location and making other changes to how you live and work is possible.

When it comes to vitamin D, it's important to make sure you're within the healthy range of 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) year-round, and the only way to determine your vitamin D level is to get a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. If you don't have insurance, an excellent option is to sign up for the GrassrootsHealth Vitamin D*action project, which provides you with a simple at-home vitamin D test kit at a reduced cost.

Not only is this an inexpensive way of keeping track of your vitamin D level, you're also participating in an important research project to show how vitamin D benefits health.

Afternoon Meal

I'm typically done with my walk by 11 a.m. in the summer and 2 p.m. in the winter. My primary meal of the day is my fitness salad. Sunflower seed sprouts, oregano, fennel, rosemary, red peppers and Malabar spinach — all of which I pick straight from my garden — make up the bulk of my salad, to which I add some healthy fats and protein.

On this day, I added ground organic lamb, salmon roe and anchovies, the latter two of which are great sources of the omega-3 fat DHA. You can find the recipe by clicking on the button below.

Evening Meal

Unlike most people, I typically will not eat dinner. If I'm hungry, I may have a high-fat snack. In the video, I show you how I make one of my favorite snacks, a macadamia nut fudge, made with all-natural healthy ingredients. Rather than being loaded with sugar, it's nearly 90 percent healthy fat and tastes great. It's also really easy to make:

My activity level and my eating habits (high-fat diet and intermittent fasting) have allowed me to become a very efficient fat burner. This means I can eat far more fat calories than someone whose body uses sugar as its primary fuel. In fact, I have to eat about 3,500 calories a day or else I'll start losing weight. A majority of those calories come from healthy fats, which my body has become very efficient at burning for fuel.

My Nighttime Routine

In the evening, I will check my email once again and do my writing and editing, but my cutoff time for working on the computer is 7 p.m. After that, I begin my bedtime routine, which includes brushing my teeth, flossing and oil pulling. I typically will watch TV for an hour, making sure I wear orange-colored glasses to block blue light. I found a pair on Amazon for less than $10 and they work just as well as the $100 version.

Avoiding blue light after sundown is important to preserve your biorhythm and help you get quality sleep. In my bedroom I also have blackout shades that block any light from outside. Last but not least, I go through the extra step of shutting down the Wi-Fi and electricity to my bedroom because I want to sleep in an electrically neutral environment.

By getting plenty of sunlight during the morning and midday, using blue-blocking glasses when watching TV in the evening, making sure my bedroom is dark, and shutting down all electromagnetic frequencies (EMF), I really optimize my sleep quality, which is a really key component for good health.

Thank You for Supporting Health Liberty and Freedom

Six years ago we launched the nonprofit coalition Health Liberty, which includes the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Fluoride Action Network (FAN), Organic Consumers Association (OCA), the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), Consumers for Dental Choice and Grassrootshealth.

Together, we've made great strides toward getting toxic mercury out of dentistry, fluoride out of drinking water, and raising awareness about the importance of vitamin D for health and disease prevention.

We've also seen a tremendous awakening across the U.S. of people learning about the hazards of genetically engineered (GE) foods and the need to label them, the health and environmental benefits of organics and regenerative agriculture, and the necessity to fight for our right to make informed vaccine choices.

To all of you, I want to extend my sincere Thank You for participating in this health revolution, and for your support in our many Health Liberty campaigns! We could not have achieved any of our victories without you.

Despite many setbacks and hurdles, I'm hopeful for the future, and I promise you my team and I will continue educating and raising awareness about the many important and oft-ignored health alternatives available, and we'll continue fighting for your right to make your own informed health choices. I also want to thank all of you for participating and sharing your wisdom and support for each other in the Vital Votes forum, and if you've not yet joined, I'd encourage you to do so.