Hi, I'm Dr Gily
I am a practicing primary care physician. My site has a variety of items, from articles on healthful living, prevention, weight loss, to personal musings on the status of health care in the Western world, to links to other sites I have created. My main audience is the general public, with the exception of the ICD-9 codes and ICD-10 codes search tools, which are intended for health care providers and coders.
Feel free to explore and if you find something interesting, please share it with your friends.
Featured Articles
Top Foods By Nutrient
Ever wondered what are the top 10 (or 25) foods richest in iron, or B12, or calcium? How about top 25 vegetables richest in calcium? Or best plant sources of omega-3s? I recently put together a simple, intuitive tool that can answer questions like these in an instant.
Try it out and let me know what you think. Please note I am currently working on including an additional piece of information regarding daily needs for each nutrient, to make the results even more relevant.
On the Reliability of Science
John Ioannidis, Professor at Stanford University and author of the famous article "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" has just launched, with a group of colleagues, a new journal, Nature Human Behavior.
The inaugural issue includes a manifesto for reproducible science, co-authored by Ioannidis.
On Alcohol Dehydrogenase and God
“If God didn’t intend for us, humans, to drink alcohol, why do we have an enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, in our liver and other tissues and cells, whose function is to process (metabolize) alcohol?”
I wrote this article for sincere believers who sometimes ask themselves questions like this, and who are looking for reasonable answers.
On Nature Vs. Nurture
I have always found the interplay between nature and nurture interesting, and the often very polarizing ways people understand this dynamic is even more fascinating.
In this article, I share with you some of the insights I have gained in recent years regarding, health habits, the impact of genetics on our risk of various diseases, and the power and limits of preventive measures.
Basal Metabolic Rate
I wrote an article that includes a few lines of code to help you find out how many calories you burn to stay alive - i.e. your basal metabolic rate. In addition, by adding your activity level, you can find out what your total daily energy expenditure is.
The metabolic rate and total daily energy needs are very helpful for building an individualized weight loss plan. These values are also very useful for anybody who is trying to put on more weight, and I had a number of body builders express their appreciation for this tool recently.
What's In Food
I am sure a lot of you will make weight loss a priority in 2016. I just resurrected and updated (for my weight loss clinic) a tool I developed a few years ago. It basically reveals what's in the food we eat. You may be surprised to know a single baby carrot has almost half the amount of vitamin A an average adult needs in a day!
It works by searching the USDA food database of over 8,000 different foods, and returning calories, macro-nutrient, vitamins and minerals data, with percent daily values where possible, in the familiar format of the nutrition label.
Of note, it returns a list of important vitamins and minerals, as well as total omega-3 and omega-6 fats.
I Need To Burn 300 or 1,000 Calories
I put together this easy to use exercise duration calculator to help you figure out how much (or rather how long) of any particular type of exercise you need to do in order to burn a specific number of calories.
In other words, if you wanted to know for how long you need to walk your dog outside to burn, say, 500 calories, this is the tool you want to use.
I have used a comprehensive compendium of physical activities that allows searching for more than 800 different types of exercise. So you shouldn't have any problem finding your favorite exercise.
The Rockport Walk Test
Want to know how fit you are? Check out our new fitness tool to measure your aerobic capacity and VO2max!
Based on norms from the by National Institute of Health and the American College of Sports Medicine.
The Ten Commandments For Weight Loss
I recently started a series of articles on how to lose weight. I am using the ten commandment format, to help me organize things and you to remember them better. I will update the list with the appropriate links as soon as I finish each article. Have fun!
How Much Exercise Is Needed For Weight Loss?
I often see overweight or obese patients who are very frustrated that exercise is not working for them. The usual story involves a few days or weeks of increased physical activity, with little or no benefit for weight loss.
What is going on? Why is losing weight so difficult?
This article aims to shed some light on this issue. Rather than using abstract/technical concepts, I am using a day in the life of my 86 year-old father to illustrate how much exercise is needed to have a positive impact on weight.
Read More >>Main Categories
A collection of useful health calculators: ideal body weight, body mass index, calories burned by exercise, and others.
Health eTools
Basal metabolic rate calculator, a food calorie calculator and behavioral strategies to lose weight.
Weight Loss
My musings on a variety of topics related to health, disease prevention and health care policy and delivery in the 21st century.
Excogitations
Articles on various aspects of disease prevention, diet, supplement and vitamin use, and other topics.
LifestyleMy Other Sites
ICD-10 Codes For Diabetes
Diabetes coding is notoriously challenging in ICD-9, and ICD-10-CM is likely to create even more confusion. I wrote this guide to make things easier.
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Evolutions Issues
Modern humans accumulate at least 50 new germline mutations per generation. But when examined, the data is in striking contrast with what would be expected from neo-Darwinian predictions.
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Vegetarian Nutrition
A highly recommended resource on healthy eating written by my friend, Dr. Winston Craig.
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