Again, it is that time of year when giving is top of mind. We reflect (hopefully, with gratitude) on what we have received this past year and how and to whom we want to give. With their steady stream of year-end asks, nonprofits remind us, too, lest we forget. Besides personal one-on-one holiday giving, the most obvious giving opportunity available to us is to support the nonprofits that inspire us.

Situated in Monterey, California, a region historically and currently steeped in artistic endeavors, MMA works to uncover and tell stories that otherwise would be lost forever. It successfully does exactly this in its fall 2025 exhibition season, “Mid-century Big Sur,” which is must-see.

While the mention of AI sparks excitement in some and triggers trepidation in others, its emergence in health and wellness promises to be a game-changer in improving how we manage our health.

As flowers burst into bloom and temperatures warm, nature invites us to enjoy the great outdoors. In the Bay Area, we are fortunate to have access to so much beautiful nature year-round for hiking, biking, running, and walking, not to mention for other activities like birdwatching, active team sports, and other sports like tennis and pickleball. Add outdoor yoga and meditation to the mix, and there is an opportunity for everyone to get more Vitamin N: i.e., nature.

While the planetary and human rights impacts of the fashion industry have received lots of attention, there is comparatively little focus on the daily impact of fashion’s fibers and chemicals on our health. What, exactly, is in our clothes?

As we flock to the gym post-holiday, New Year’s resolutions in tow, we should focus our efforts more on health than vanity as we seek to get into shape, whether that be shedding a few pounds and/or increasing our physical activity. Just eating less food to lose weight or doing any random exercise, however, may not help you achieve the benefits you want when it comes to building muscle. What we eat and how we train ensures we do not lose strength and muscle in the process.

As we embark on this particular holiday season, I wanted to write on a lighter note to offer a bit of cheer and inspiration. No one can dispute that the world is in an unsettled state. Even the most optimistic among us struggle to stay that way. With wars, a divided country, a barrage of negative news cycles, and calendars filled with the usual holiday busyness and seasonal commercial overload, how can we retain the optimism essential for our own well-being?

The Bay Area has long been a cultural hub for world-class arts along with attracting its respective creators, affording locals many opportunities for artistic immersion and enjoyment. But besides just sheer pleasure, for those of us on a wellness path, can the arts also actually improve our well-being?

With women at the forefront of the longevity revolution, Maddy Dychtwald brings a deep understanding informed by countless research studies addressing women’s specific longevity-related wants, needs, challenges and opportunities. In May 2024, she released her new book, Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan (Mayo Clinic Press) to provide women with an insider’s guide to living better longer.

For centuries, humans have flocked to mineral baths and hot springs, sweat lodges and saunas for their healing properties. Long before any scientific data could validate their benefits, human instincts prevailed anecdotally.

A recent Wall Street Journal article questioning whether clothes were better 50 years ago inspired me to reflect on fashion, which I have always loved. No question, most modern clothes have become less expensive (fast fashion) and more comfortable, but at what price?

For this holiday issue, I had originally planned to share some of my favorite health gadgets that would be good stocking stuffers. (Okay, they might not exactly fit into your stocking.) But thinking about the holidays more gave me pause to reconsider something less commercial and much more important, the subject of generosity, especially as we enter one of the most social times of the year, for some, and for others, the loneliest.

We hear more and more about the adverse effects of a sedentary lifestyle. For decades, the desk was the center of work culture, and it still is to some extent. Computers and mobile phones keep us glued to large and small screens alike, and with the wide array of entertainment content options available these days, it is easy to become that quintessential “couch potato” without even realizing it.

As a child, my parents instilled a passion for learning I’ve carried with me all these years. Learning is not just a verb. It’s an attitude—one of curiosity about the world around us. I call it “epi-curious”—an epicure of curiosity about continually noticing and paying attention to what interests us and brings us joy.

I hope you had a joyful holiday with friends and family. Here’s to you in 2023! May you be healthy, happy, and inspired. Along those lines, I’ll make this short and not so sweet. Maybe it’s time for you to break up with sugar? Just for a little while, at least. You probably had plenty over the holidays, so the beginning of a new year is the perfect time to kick off a 30-day sugar detox. I challenge you to 30 days, as most folks abandon their health resolutions within a few weeks. It’s important to stay with it.

While many of us watch our diet and exercise, we probably have not given much thought to how we breathe. Some of us cannot ignore our noses, especially if we suffer from respiratory or sleep issues such as asthma, snoring, or sleep apnea. Considering the average human takes up to 25,000 breaths per day or an average of 670 million breaths over a lifetime --- breathing is an area of our well-being worth paying attention to. Taking time to explore its potential benefits when done properly and understanding the negative consequences when done incorrectly is important to our health.

This one is for the ladies. Sorry, gents, but we have our unique issues. Recently, at a retreat hosted by BlueWave Medicine, I had the opportunity to meet New York Times bestselling author and speaker, Berkeley resident and physician Sara Gottfried. She recently just published her fifth book, WOMEN, FOOD AND HORMONES: A 4-Week Plan to Achieve Hormonal Balance, Lose Weight and Feel Like Yourself Again. This book is a must-read for any woman wanting to shed those extra pounds, balance hormones, achieve metabolic flexibility, and enjoy greater mental acuity. Just about all of us fit into at least one of those buckets.

Americans are on the move again, with both business and leisure travel expected to increase. In January, Tripadvisor published its “Travel in 2022” predictions report indicating “2022 is the year of the travel rebound” and further noted “planned travel in 2022 is expected to exceed actual travel in 2019.” Over the past two years, we learned how taking care of ourselves is key. So, how can we minimize risk and continue our commitment to healthy living when we travel?

No one is sure when humans first started having “pets.” A search on the internet turned up somewhere between 12,000 to 40,000 years ago. Fast forward to 2021, according to the 2021-2022 APPA National Pet Owners Survey,” 70% of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 90.5 million homes.” Dogs take first place, cats second, fish third and birds fourth. Pets are big business—the same survey estimates in 2021, “$109.6 billion will be spent on our pets in the U.S.”

More than ever, specially now during covid, we have become aware of the air we breathe. Developing and honing our air quality IQ might just save your life and improve your health or the health of others. Of course, there’s nothing like trial by fire to focus our attention on something most of us probably never thought of before. In the past year, we have had plenty of wake-up calls, such as California’s forest fires, the impact of COVID, and—to top matters off—likely more consecutive hours indoors than ever before.