If you’ve been troubled by any of the symptoms listed below and your doctor(s), including your neurologist, has told you, “We can’t find anything wrong,” you probably should get tested for ‘leaky brain’ syndrome’ (LBS). It’s the same mechanism behind the familiar ‘leaky gut’ (a/k/a intestinal hyperpermeability) which took conventional physicians decades to accept as […]
MALE MENOPAUSE: IS IT REAL?
Definitely. Last week, wrote how actor Naomi Watts experienced menopause symptoms earlier than she ever dreamed possible, her mid thirties. For men, testosterone levels start drifting downward in this decade as well. Most men don’t notice anything, others do feel something is “off”. “My energy is not the same.” “Don’t have interest in sex like […]
ACTOR NAOMI WATTS, SURPRISED BY MENOPAUSE, WRITES A GOOD BOOK ABOUT IT
“Dare I Say It”, is subtitled, “Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause”. Being female has never been a walk in the park for Ms. Watts. She was last in her class to have her first period at eighteen, needed the guidance of Cosmopolitan Magazine and Sidney Sheldon novels (anyone remember those?) to learn the […]
ME-CFS: THE “REAL” CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME: WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO KNOW IF IT’S YOU
The full name is “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis”. “Myalgic” is a medical term for chronically painful muscles. “Encephalomyelitis” means your brain, spinal cord and nerves are inflamed, cause unknown, although the current thinking is the trigger is some sort of phenomenon occurring after a viral infection (‘mono’, ‘flu’, COVID). The result is “chronic fatigue”. You are tired […]
MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS: THE “REAL” CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
The statistics are dreadful. Almost four million Americans are estimated to suffer this chronic and debilitating condition (almost a million more were added as victims of “long” COVID). Of these millions, seven out of ten remain undiagnosed (“we don’t know what’s wrong with you”). And, since there are no specific diagnostic tests for ME-CFS, they […]
WHY I STARTED WHOLEHEALTH CHICAGO: NOT WANTING YOU TO DIE FROM SOMETHING STUPID
Years and years ago, I was the Medical Director of a REALLY LARGE group here in Chicago. At its peak, we had over fifty doctors, both primary care physicians and members of virtually all specialists. We provided care for over 20,000 patients both in Chicago and the suburbs. There were patients in about 15 primary […]
Protecting Yourself (and Your Child) from the Dangerous Anti-Vaccine Cult
I wanted to pull this Health Tip from the archives of the 1,600 (give or take a few) on file since I started this back in 1994. I had written it in response to the vociferous anti-vaccination community which I knew had been funding completely false research, spreading really dangerous misinformation, and causing untoward damage […]
GRUMPY? FEELING LIKE YOU MIGHT SNAP? STOP POSTING YOUR OPINIONS!
I’m sure you’ve read about the anxiety and depression, especially among teenagers, as they dealt with humiliation and bullying on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. Also important, how their depression dramatically improved once they signed off the platforms and didn’t return. In response to reports of ‘anger,’ ‘feeling more on edge,’ and other […]
BLOATED WITH EVERY MEAL? MAYBE IT’S ABDOMINOPHRENIC DYSSYNERGY!
Never heard of this one, right? A real mouthful to pronounce, too. ‘Abdomino’ is easy. ‘Phrenic’ is the nerve from your spinal cord attached to your diaphragm, the large muscle that separates your lungs from your abdomen. Your phrenic nerve controls breathing. ‘Dyssynergy’ simply means things are functioning out-of-whack. More and more gastroenterologists have come […]
Hydration and Longevity
You’ll like this story. Sometime in her eighties, my Aunt Hildy, who passed on at 94 or so, handed me a book, “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water”, by an Iranian physician with a totally unpronounceable name, Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D. She told me it had changed her life. Dr. B. attributed virtually all chronic illnesses, […]
CHRONIC LYME DISEASE: SHOULD I WORRY? ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Yes, I am serious. These days, from what we’re learning about Lyme Disease (more about correct terminology later), anything is possible. Here’s who doesn’t have to worry: if you regard yourself as healthy and if asked, “Overall, how do you feel?” And answer, “Just fine, thanks,” then Lyme in any form is very unlikely and […]
The Supplement I Love Most: Magnesium
Along with most things relating to good nutrition, I wasn’t taught much of anything about supplemental magnesium either in medical school or during my internal medicine residency. It was a professional clinical nutritionist I met during a long-ago meeting of the American Holistic Medical Association who first told me, “You’ll never go wrong if you […]
A CHECKLIST OF OVERLOOKED CAUSES OF CHRONIC FATIGUE
If there’s one single symptom that brings patients most frequently into the offices of WholeHealth Chicago, it’s this: “I’m tired all the time and doctors can’t find anything wrong.” The “can’t find” you all are experiencing is the real problem of today’s health care system. It’s that notorious fifteen minute medical encounter of primary care medicine: […]
LONGEVITY MEDICINE: AN UPDATE
I’ve been getting more and more inquiries about prescription medications, supplements, and infusions all being promoted for their ‘anti-aging’ and ‘longevity’ benefits. Patients want to know, quite reasonably, what’s real? What’s not? What’s dangerous? What’s crazy? Let’s spend this Health Tip on an update among the world of the anti-aging ‘gurus’ (There are plenty of […]
CHRONIC DIARRHEA? GET YOUR FECAL CALPROTECTIN CHECKED!
Fecal calprotectin? Never heard of it, right? A calprotectin stool test measures a protein called calprotectin in a sample of your stool (poop). It’s used to check for inflammation (swelling and irritation) in your small and large intestines. It’s normal to have a small amount of calprotectin in your stool. But high levels are a […]
“BRAIN FOG” or “I’M JUST NOT THINKING CLEARLY”
The uptick in “brain fog” as a complaint among new (and many returning) patients at WholeHealth Chicago offices really began with the COVID pandemic. As the numbers were being collected, first nationally, then globally, that one out of five people who had experienced COVID also had “long COVID,” with “brain fog” as a major long […]
HILLARY WAS SENT TO THE MAYO CLINIC FOR PMS? SERIOUSLY?
Really frustrated by the lack of progress on her bevy of unexplained symptoms, Hillary’s primary care provider and a couple of specialists, unable to make a diagnosis of her symptoms, a combination of joint pains, skin eruptions, mood swings and minor abnormalities in blood tests, agreed to refer her to the Mayo Clinic. The symptoms […]
COLOSTRUM: IS IT WORTH ADDING YET ANOTHER SUPPLEMENT?
The word keeps popping up in emails from patients, and I’m seeing it more and more on their smoothie “lists”. Then, when I saw an article in the Washington Post about colostrum, I thought I’d better write about it myself. Colostrum was your first taste of food when you were born, the first milk produced […]
“DIARRHEA HAS CONTROLLED MY LIFE FOR DECADES!”
My 50 year old patient related the following history: “The diarrhea started in my teens and has dominated my life. It got worse when I went away to college, stress was my first trigger, final exams, a date, then almost anything could trigger it. Imagine trying to find a toilet at a Big Ten football […]
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: ANTIBIOTICS AND YOUR GUT MICROBIOME
An astonishing 1% of the U.S, population suffers the joint pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), women far outnumbering men, usually starting midlife 30’s to 40’s. RA is one of the 100 or so autoimmune diseases in which your immune system, generally a “good guy” meant to fight “bad guys” like infections and cancer […]