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 […]
Author: wholehealthchicago
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 […]
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 […]
HEAVY METAL TOXICITY (ESPECIALLY LEAD!) AND YOUR HEALTH
For those who might not have been paying attention that day in high school chemistry, the heavy metals refer to a group of dense metals or metal-like substances (called metalloids) found in the environment. These metals–specifically lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and aluminum–can all be absorbed by your body and stored there. Our environment is already […]
ONE OF THOSE REALLY INTERESTING COINCIDENCES…..
I had planned this vacation for a long time, and now I was having breakfast at my hotel in Tokyo, Japan, planning what sites I would be visiting. Suddenly, my eye caught an internet article in the Washington Post that held my chopsticks mid-air: “Travel Can Slow the Aging Process” The lead author, Fangli Hu, […]
Start By Healing Your Gut
About 25 years ago, when I was organizing what today is WholeHealth Chicago, I attempted to learn everything I could about all the fields of what was then called alternative medicine. Since naturopathic medicine, or naturopathy, didn’t really exist in Illinois (perpetually blocked by the Illinois State Medical Society), I flew to the west coast […]
AKKERMANSIA: THE “SHINING STAR” OF YOUR GUT FLORA
No, that nickname is not from me. However, it definitely is one of the praises heaped upon by scientists around the world as they describe the wonders of this one strain of bacteria in your intestinal microbiome. Read carefully. Link to the research papers if you like. If you have enough Akkermansia (full name Akkermansia […]
NUTRITIONAL INFLUENCES ON DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY
Depressed? Anxious? In the cynical ideal world of your insurance company’s CEO, he’d like you to have a one visit with your primary care provider (PCP) and, if you absolutely must, a referral to a visit to a mental health counselor. Not too many of these visits, as these cost money and you’re usually allowed […]
GETTING YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS FILLED AND REFILLED AT WHOLEHEALTH CHICAGO
“I’m about to run out of my hormones….my Adderall..my blood pressure meds.” “My pharmacist said he sent a FAX…I need an early refill…I’m leaving for Paris in 3 days!” Okay, okay, slow down. I’m going to walk you through the incredible complexity of rules and regulations concerning your prescriptions. On the one hand, my dedicated […]
YOUR “LOW ESTROGEN FACE” AND HOW WE CAN HELP
Sex hormones are not to be taken lightly. Some recent research measuring blood levels of estrogen in several hundred young women and then making facial “composite photos” showed that those with normal to high (but not too high) levels of estrogen were more physically (read “sexually”) appealing. Go overboard with estrogen and all sorts of […]
UNDERSTANDING CANDIDA, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
Patients come to WholeHealth Chicago regularly with this common refrain: “You’re the fourth (or seventh or tenth) doctor I’ve seen. I feel terrible but am always told that my tests are normal and there’s nothing wrong with me.” Then they’ll add: “I read about Candida overgrowth and the symptoms seem to fit me exactly. I […]
CASE STUDY: ECZEMA FROM HELL
Tracy had wisely trimmed her fingernails to avoid injuring her own skin, but as she sat in my office she continuously rubbed one part of her body or another with the ball of her thumb in order to relieve the itching. Dermatologists sometimes refer to this as, “The itch that rashes, rather than the rash […]
SUPPLEMENTS I TAKE. “REALLY? EVERY DAY?!” ACTUALLY, MOST OF THEM TWICE A DAY.
Every two or three years, I list the supplements that I myself have been taking for just about twenty years or so, adding or subtracting one or two based on some new research findings. I also mention just why I take them. For example, after decades of fish oil capsules, I’ve pretty much dropped these when […]
PIGS AT A TROUGH
I regularly revisit my battered copy of a 2013 Time Magazine Special Report, “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us”, with the same conflicted feeling I had at about age six when I learned that something painful, like picking a scab or jiggling a loose tooth, also afforded a secret pleasure that could not be shared […]
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES
As a woman, unless you undergo the ‘instant menopause’ of a total hysterectomy, anticipate your own menopause transition in one of three ways. First, there’s “Menopause Heaven.” Your periods will lighten, become erratic, then stop altogether. A year goes by, and you’ll say, “Oh, so that was menopause. I wonder what everyone is complaining about.” […]
”Leaky Brain” the True Villain Behind “Brain Fog”
In the physiology and neurology classes of medical school, you learn a lot about the importance of something called the “blood brain barrier”. You’ve seen blood, of course. The bright red liquid carrying oxygen, nutrients, etc., etc. But your brain and spinal fluid should always be crystal clear, unless infected or inflamed. Separating blood from […]