There are a few fundamental principles I impart regularly to my patients, and so since I have come to see all of my readers as a regular part of my clinic family, I would like to similarly impart these principles to you.

In my clinic, I teach my patients to use common sense with their health more so than anything else. In the end, being overly cautious is always better than not being cautious enough.

Most physicians know that diet and exercise matter, we learn that even in medical school. But this concerned me -- that there are still doctors out there who don't believe in a healthy lifestyle pattern, and want their patients to depend heavily on drugs to be "healthy."

If you are interested in using vitamin A or E supplements, check with your doctor first to see whether they are a good idea for you, or if simply eating a well-balanced, plant-based diet is enough for you to get adequate levels of these in your body.

When you do a search on the Internet, there are abundant studies that suggest both for and against vitamins -- so what are we to make of all the results? Should we or should we not take multivitamins?

I frequently see patients who have gotten saliva testing for various hormone levels, a common practice in many integrative and complementary health clinics, who want to know whether they can fully test the saliva testing results.

For decades now, we've heard about taking aspirin daily as a way to prevent heart disease. Some of my patients have even taken it upon themselves to start taking a daily baby aspirin because they think that it is a healthy thing to do.

As a clinician who sees the basic science findings translate into clinical care, it is always exciting to learn more about cellular functioning on a molecular level, because it helps me explain information to my patients about how our body is full of checks and balances.

While the extended daylight hours afford us more time to be outdoors and active, we still need to keep in mind that sun exposure can be deleterious to our skin health.