It seems that men wanted to control female sexuality since the dawn of time. “Aphrodisiacs” (named after Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and desire) appear in the medical writings of ancient Greece, and in Chinese medicine a combination of acupuncture and herbs apparently worked wonders. Ayurvedic practitioners may have suspected that spinal chiropractic manipulation was […]
Category: Alternative Therapies
Alternative therapies or alternative medicine refers to any medical treatments that are not traditional medicine techniques. Examples of this include Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Meditation and more.
More Information on the New Weight Loss Meds
In last week’s Health Tip I introduced you to the semaglutides, the weekly injectable medications originally approved by the FDA for Type 2 diabetes, but when it was discovered how many users were losing 20% of their weight, began getting quick approval for “obesity”. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post reprinted older […]
Peptides for Weight Loss: What You Need To Know
You’re tired of being overweight, and now you’re teetering toward actual ‘obesity’. You’ve tried everything. You’ve been dieting as long as you can remember and nothing happens. You starve yourself, exercise to exhaustion, lose some pounds and gain them back. No matter what you do, your ‘tummy’ is still there. You know you’re not alone. […]
Peptide Therapy: Thymosin and BPC-157
Honestly, if you Google ‘peptide therapy’, you’ll get overwhelmed by TMI (‘too much information’). Then you might be put off by claims that sound terrific (“Burn fat! Combat mental decline!” “Heal wounds! Reverse aging!”) but then make you feel, well, skeptical. Let’s face it, we’d all like ‘enhanced fat burning,’ ‘better wound healing’, ‘smoother skin’, […]
Orthomolecular Medicine and Longevity
“Orthomolecular medicine”. Now there’s a phrase you don’t hear in the 21st century, except in historical terms. Invented by two-time Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling (Do you even remember him? Ah! How fleeting is fame!), one prize for his work on chemical bonds, the second, the Nobel Peace Prize for his work banning atmospheric […]
Everything Begins In The Gut
I sometimes wonder if new patients to WholeHealth Chicago think we’re overly preoccupied with their digestion, gut health, nutrition, and even the consistency and quality of their stool when they scheduled that appointment for a seemingly unrelated problem. We certainly treat a large variety of health concerns: anti-aging and disease prevention, dermatologic problems, chronic fatigue, […]
Controversial Diagnosis #7: Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS for short) is one of those annoying conditions in which a patient, after having read an article like this one and suffering similar symptoms, asks her doctor and gets one of two disappointing answers: “Never heard of it” (translation: MCAS is fairly new and often overlooked) or “Consulting Dr. Google […]
NAD+: Getting Serious About Anti-Aging Therapy
We’re living in a time of major, worldwide breakthroughs when it comes to understanding how we age and also the steps we can take to not only slow down aging, but to all appearances reverse the process. Over history, the fountain of youth seekers came, literally and figuratively, to dead ends, but back then Ponce […]
Three Paths To Great Looking Skin: Diet, Hormones, Your Gut
Let’s clear away what everybody knows about speeding up skin aging: cigarettes(click to yucky picture), too much sun exposure, junk foods. As a nutritionally oriented physician, a healthful diet is really important for an attractive skin. Nowhere is the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” more apparent than there, right on your face. When you’re eating […]
Quell The Fire of Menopause Hell With Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT)
When it’s time, you can expect to transition through menopause in one of three ways. If you’re unlucky enough to land in Menopause Hell, give some serious thought to bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). Some women experience Menopause Heaven, in which your periods start changing and then stop without drama. A year goes by without […]
NAD+…A Potent Anti-Aging Therapy
The big news of the past couple of years has been a substance produced in our own bodies, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, NAD+ for short. It is classified as a ’cofactor’ meaning that it helps all the parts of your metabolism run efficiently. Imagine your metabolism as billions of gears running constantly, 24/7, from your conception to your final breath. NAD+ lubricates everything. Without NAD+ you’d be dead, instantly.
“So Many of My Relatives Have Alzheimer’s—I’m Scared.”
Jeanette, sitting across from me, was genuinely frightened about her future. Yes, she did have several elderly relatives with what she was calling “Alzheimer’s”, but I quickly pointed out that not all causes of dementia are due to Alzheimer’s Disease and much of dementia is both preventable and reversible. I asked what steps she had […]
Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation
You’ll see ultraviolet lamps in many areas of hospitals and medical centers used in a variety of ways. Doctors began to appreciate the healing powers of ultraviolet light as far back as the early years of the 20th century. In 1903, Dr. Niels Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for curing lupus of the skin with ultraviolet violet. To this day, dermatologists rely on external UV for psoriasis and certain skin cancers. But sterilizing medical equipment, or treating psoriasis, use UV externally.
You Know It’s Time To Change Doctors When…
Despite waiting weeks for an appointment and filling out all those forms, you can tell from the get-go, you’re being regarded as an inconvenience. Maybe, despite your persistent symptoms, you “look” too healthy to have anything seriously wrong with you and your new doctor has scheduled you for a cursory history/physical/basic blood work before she […]
Wholehealth Chicago Partners With Chicago’s Finest Trigger Point Therapy Team
Let me tell you about Mary Biancalana and the value of myofascial trigger point therapy. A lifelong fitness expert and personal trainer, in her early thirties Mary found herself with chronic headaches. First, she was told they were ‘psychological,’ then a manifestation of a little understood term called “trigger points” and another condition she’d never […]
LONGEVITY MEDICINE: Chronic Inflammation and Cytokines
Did you ever wonder why some obese people, after decades of being badgered by their families and physicians to lose weight, out-live all of them and are healthy for decades? Or how someone of normal weight falls over dead in his fifties from a massive heart attack the week after his check-up which included a […]
Longevity Medicine: Take A Family Inventory
If every one of your parents/grandparents/great-grandparents made it well into their 90’s, and passed away with their bodies and minds basically intact, you can probably skip this Health Tip. Something like, “Dad was 94 and had finished chopping logs. Sat on a stump, closed his eyes and just died.” Or, “Meemaw (Grandmom was clearly from […]
Longevity Medicine: Your Gums And Your Lifespan
Last week, we chatted about how your microbiome affects your longevity. Now let’s meander to the other end of your 30-foot-long alimentary canal, up to your mouth, specifically your gums. WholeHealth Chicago patients know we do a check on the health status of their mouths during the physical exam, asking about their dental visits or […]
Longevity Medicine: Your Intestinal Microbiome As A Predictor Of Longevity
Seriously folks, I really don’t believe conventional medicine knows much about your intestinal microbiome except, “Too many antibiotics cause diarrhea” and “C. difficle is really dangerous.” (Note: both conditions are iatrogenic, i.e., caused by doctors themselves). That’s the limit of what I was taught in medical school and residency and things haven’t progressed when I […]
Longevity Medicine: How Your Herd Of Specialists And Their Fragmented Care Can Shorten Your Life
“Silo medicine”. It’s an odd way to express it, “silo medicine”, but there have been articles written using just this phrase to express one of the most serious flaws in the health care system. Picture an open field somewhere in the Midwest with a couple of dozen silos. “Cardiology”, “Rheumatology”, “General Surgery”, “Psychiatry”, and so […]