Ask Dr. Mike: 3 Health Hacks PLUS Calcium Supplementation

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:

What are three health hacks to use in your everyday life?

1. Brushing your teeth when you're hungry decreases your appetite. If you're on a diet, or trying to detox after a long binge of unhealthy eating and drinking (aka: the holidays), brushing your teeth can actually help manage your appetite.

2. If you have chronic gum disease or bad breath, oil pulling is one of the best things you can do. Oil pulling involves placing a tablespoon of oil into your mouth, swishing it around and pulling it through your teeth and gums for about 20 minutes. Oil pulling removes unwanted plaque, toxins, and bacteria from your mouth.

3. One way to get extra nutrients is to boil vegetables with water over the stove. Once the vegetables are cooked, remove them from the pot and let the water sit and cool off. After it's cooled, drink the water to obtain more nutrients.

I read that during our evolution period, calcium was scarce and magnesium was plentiful. So, our bodies got very adept at pulling calcium from our food. Do we really need to take calcium supplements?

It is true, we pull calcium from food. When Dr. Mike makes his dosing suggestions, he is basing it off of food, but also with a supplement. For example, women over 36 should be getting close to 1,000 mg a day. For men, it's about 500 mg.

The key thing about taking a calcium supplement is that you can overload on calcium when you don't have enough vitamin D and vitamin K2.

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.