David Richards | PeakWell Health and Wellness

David Richards

David Richards

When the Chatbot Becomes a Confidant: What We Know About AI and Mental Health Risk

Oct 21, 2026

•

14 min read

When the Chatbot Becomes a Confidant: What We Know About AI and Mental Health Risk

But a growing number of documented cases suggest that for some people, especially during periods of stress, isolation, or existing vulnerability, intensive chatbot use can coincide with serious mental health crises, including delusional thinking and, in the most tragic cases, suicide.

Contagious Cancer That Outlived Patient Zero By 11,000 Years

Oct 7, 2026

•

17 min read

Contagious Cancer That Outlived Patient Zero By 11,000 Years

Somewhere in North America, around 11,000 years ago, a dog developed a tumor. That in itself is nothing unusual; animals get cancer, and so do we. What happened next is where the story turns strange. That dog eventually died. Its tumor did not.

Can the Shingles Vaccine Help Protect Your Brain?

Sep 30, 2026

•

13 min read

Can the Shingles Vaccine Help Protect Your Brain?

Shingles and dementia do not look related. One is a painful skin rash. The other is a slow decline in memory and thinking. Yet across a string of studies published since 2024, a pattern keeps showing up: people who get shingles face a higher risk of dementia later on, and people who get the shingles vaccine face a lower one.

The Red Pigment That May Protect Your Prostate

Sep 23, 2026

•

13 min read

The Red Pigment That May Protect Your Prostate

The answer, according to a growing body of research, may involve a red pigment found in tomatoes. It is called lycopene, and it has attracted serious scientific attention as a potential ally against prostate cancer.

5 Surprising Signals Your Body Sends About Life Expectancy

Sep 16, 2026

•

17 min read

5 Surprising Signals Your Body Sends About Life Expectancy

Some of the most reliable predictors of a longer life are hiding in plain sight, right in the way your body moves, stands, and holds itself up.

The Warning Sign Men Are Missing: What the bedroom might be telling you about your heart

Sep 9, 2026

•

17 min read

The Warning Sign Men Are Missing: What the bedroom might be telling you about your heart

More striking still is the timing. Multiple prospective studies and reviews indicate that vasculogenic erectile dysfunction, the kind caused by compromised blood flow rather than anxiety or hormonal fluctuation, tends to appear roughly 2 to 5 years before a cardiac event or stroke.

Your Thermometer Is Lying to You. And It Has Been Since 1851

Aug 19, 2026

•

17 min read

Your Thermometer Is Lying to You. And It Has Been Since 1851

Here is a number worth questioning: 37°C. It is printed on thermometers, repeated in medical textbooks, and treated by doctors and patients alike as the definitive marker of a healthy human body. It is also, for a large proportion of modern adults, simply not accurate. Not even close.

Your Brain Might Not Be Done With You Yet

Aug 12, 2026

•

11 min read

Your Brain Might Not Be Done With You Yet

A study out of the University of Cambridge is reshaping the way scientists think about brain development, and the number at the center of it is one that surprised me when I first read it. Thirty-two. That is roughly the age at which the brain appears to reach full maturity. Not eighteen. Not twenty-five. Thirty-two.

The Brain That Never Learned to See And What It Tells Us About Mental Health

Jul 29, 2026

•

14 min read

The Brain That Never Learned to See And What It Tells Us About Mental Health

Consider something that psychiatrists noticed more than 70 years ago, quietly at first, almost as a footnote. They were treating thousands of patients with schizophrenia and, across all those cases, something was conspicuously absent. Not one of those patients had been born blind. Not one.

What If the Month You Were Born in Actually Made a Difference to Your Mental Health?

Jul 15, 2026

•

20 min read

What If the Month You Were Born in Actually Made a Difference to Your Mental Health?

Here is something worth sitting with for a moment. The month you were born could have a small but measurable influence on your risk of developing a serious mental illness later in life.

The Quiet Revolution Inside Your Cells

Jul 8, 2026

•

13 min read

The Quiet Revolution Inside Your Cells

But the more you look at what’s happening in labs right now, the harder it becomes to dismiss. Something real is taking shape. Something that might change how we think about aging altogether.

Brain Boosters vs. Brain Busters: The Role of Diet in Cognitive Function

Jul 3, 2026

•

11 min read

Brain Boosters vs. Brain Busters: The Role of Diet in Cognitive Function

Cognitive decline is among the top health concerns for most older adults, and I count myself among them.

Could Kimchi Hold the Key to Flushing Plastic From Your Body?

Jul 1, 2026

•

17 min read

Could Kimchi Hold the Key to Flushing Plastic From Your Body?

And here is the uncomfortable part: there are currently no reliable, practical strategies to remove nanoplastics from the human body once they've been absorbed. Until recently, that sentence had no "but."

Still Evolving: What Modern Life Is Doing to the Human Body

Jun 24, 2026

•

17 min read

Still Evolving: What Modern Life Is Doing to the Human Body

We are still evolving, just not in the way we tend to picture it. There’s no obvious transformation unfolding in front of us. It’s more subtle than that, shaped by the environments we live in and, just as much, by the ones we’ve created without paying much attention.

Could Full-Fat Cheese Protect Your Brain? The Surprising Link Between Dairy and Dementia Risk

Jun 17, 2026

•

11 min read

Could Full-Fat Cheese Protect Your Brain? The Surprising Link Between Dairy and Dementia Risk

Cheese, often seen as an indulgence, may actually offer a small cognitive advantage.

The Bacteria Behind Your Brain

Jun 10, 2026

•

12 min read

The Bacteria Behind Your Brain

What they found was not subtle. Mice given human or squirrel monkey microbes began expressing brain genes in patterns that looked distinctly more human-like. Specifically, genes tied to energy production became more active.

Why Younger Generations Are Seeing More Hair Loss — And What It Reveals About Modern Health

May 6, 2026

•

7 min read

Why Younger Generations Are Seeing More Hair Loss — And What It Reveals About Modern Health

The loss is a sign of something more than hair. It reflects the world these generations grew up in, shaped partly by circumstance and partly by culture. The pace. The pressure. The constant hum of everything.

Cancer Without the Crisis: Rethinking Prostate Cancer in Older Men

Apr 15, 2026

•

23 min read

Cancer Without the Crisis: Rethinking Prostate Cancer in Older Men

By age 60, many men are already living with prostate cancer they will never know about.That sentence tends to stop people for a moment. Cancer is supposed to announce itself loudly. A diagnosis divides life into the before and the after. However, prostate cancer, at least in many men, defies this expectation.

Touch Your Food: The Surprising Link Between Fingers, Digestion, and Fullness

Mar 25, 2026

•

21 min read

Touch Your Food: The Surprising Link Between Fingers, Digestion, and Fullness

Our hands are packed with tiny nerve endings that help the brain identify texture, temperature and moisture. When those nerves interact with food, signals travel up to the brain and help prime the digestive system. The body starts preparing before the first bite.

Listen Up: This Article Just Might Save You from Dementia

Mar 4, 2026

•

19 min read

Listen Up: This Article Just Might Save You from Dementia

A large study from Johns Hopkins found that older adults with moderate to severe hearing loss had a 61% higher prevalence of dementia.

Colon Cancer on the Rise: The Hidden Crisis in Young Adults

Jan 28, 2026

•

25 min read

Colon Cancer on the Rise: The Hidden Crisis in Young Adults

There are milestones to ageing. One of those, for me, was after turning 50, when my first colorectal cancer kit arrived at my house. At the time fifty seemed like an arbitrary age, and I was correct, but for all the wrong reasons.

Digital Detox: Restoring Your Brain in the Age of Screens

Dec 31, 2025

•

29 min read

Digital Detox: Restoring Your Brain in the Age of Screens

Is that what productivity looks like in the digital age? When we’re attending five meetings at once but can’t give any of them our full attention? When rest is optional, but Slack is 24/7?

Dec 10, 2025

•

26 min read

Blue Zones: Longevity Secrets or Lucrative Lifestyle Brand?

As soon as I learned about Blue Zones, I recalled Élie Metchnikoff's wishful thinking that yogurt was a key to longevity, based on the observation that Bulgarian peasants who consumed large amounts of fermented milk (yogurt) appeared to live unusually long lives. This turned out to be more likely a case of poor record keeping and exaggeration, unintentional and otherwise.

Red Light Therapy: Health Miracle or Photonic Fraud?

Dec 3, 2025

•

23 min read

Red Light Therapy: Health Miracle or Photonic Fraud?

I concede that I came at this article with a great deal of skepticism born from the number and boldness of claims and by the fact that it only seems to have fringe support. Although this can all be attributed to the relative newness in the mainstream, I feel it is worth asking a simple question: is red light therapy a scam, or is it backed by science?

Seed Oils and the Raging Health Debate

Nov 26, 2025

•

27 min read

Seed Oils and the Raging Health Debate

What I personally can’t shake is this: Most seed oils require industrial processing to be edible. The crude oil extracted from soybeans or cottonseed is not safe for human consumption until it’s chemically altered. That’s a sticking point for me.