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Functional Medicine 101 + Introducing Dr. Parisa Samsami

Functional Medicine (FM) is without a doubt the fastest growing medical specialty of the 21st century. Public interest and broad public acceptance of it continue to please me. Every day I hear the sentence, “I made this appointment because I wanted a functional approach.” When I ask patients how they learned about it, the answer is […]

Functional Telemedicine, Wherever You Are

All things considered, we’ve rather enjoyed our telemedicine interactions with patients. Doctoring this way also recently provided me with an Aha! moment. What I realized was that much of what we do as Functional Medicine specialists, both diagnosis and treatment, can be done online with you never leaving your home. Such a consultation would include […]

2019/2020 Flu Season: Prepare Yourself With IV Therapy

I was struck by this New York Times piece on the severe flu outbreak in Australia with an unusually nasty virus. It took a moment for me to realize it’s spring in the Southern Hemisphere and they’ve just finished their winter flu season. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) predict that our flu season could […]

First, Heal 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 […]

Functional Medicine: Your Wacky Hormones and Adrenal Glands

“Exhaustion is my reality. At four o’clock, I’m wiped, totally wiped. So tired I could sleep at my desk.” Patricia is 33, happily married as far as marriages go, one kid, steadily employed in the usual American less­than­satisfying corporate job, good eating habits, and, until recently, a health club goer a couple/three times a week. […]

Functional Medicine: Your Wacky Hormones and Thyroid Gland

Let me start by saying that the majority of board-certified endocrinologists give me a pain. They’re internists, like me and our newest WholeHealth Chicago physician Neeti Sharma, MD, but they have additional training via endocrinology fellowships. Somewhere along the way, many of them become almost too academic, no longer actually listening to patients but rather […]

For A Longer Life…Stand Up Now!

By far the most common answer to my question, “Exercising these days?” is “Not enough.” This is usually accompanied by the briefest flicker of melancholy regret, as if by such a confession my patient has permanently abandoned the hopes and dreams of both a svelte body and enviable longevity. “Don’t worry,” I say, “It’s just […]

Fruitcake, Genes, and Exercise: A Spooky Holiday Story

Starting around Thanksgiving and generally ending on January 2, we’re surrounded by too much food. Many of us who spent the year really (really!) trying to lose weight and eat healthfully dread the havoc these dark days can wreak on our bodies. It’s agonizingly easy to add some pounds. Then, come January, we despair at […]

The Flu

It’s here, folks. You’ve likely had the flu in the past and if you’re currently coming down with symptoms you’re not looking forward to the next few days. Your throat hurts, your nose is first watery, then clogged with something approximating cement. Your muscles ache and you’re pretty sure you have a fever, but you’re […]

Functional Medicine 101 + Introducing Dr. Alaina Gemelas

Functional Medicine is without a doubt the fastest growing medical specialty of the 21st century. Public interest in it and public acceptance of it continues to please me. Every day I hear the sentence, “I made this appointment because I wanted a functional approach.” When I ask patients how they learned about it, the answer […]

Fish Oil: Finally Some Solid Answers

In the 1970s, epidemiologic studies discovered that Inuit (the indigenous people of the Arctic regions Canada, Alaska, and Greenland), whose diet was extremely rich in fish, had a much lower rate of heart disease than Americans and Europeans. Scientists attributed this to the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in fish, which seemed to protect and […]

Fox News (Wait, I Mean Frontline) On Nutritional Supplements

Not being a TV watcher, I’d never actually seen PBS Frontline until I received some emails from patients and medical colleagues asking for my reaction to what sounded like a Fox News rant against the nutritional supplement industry. Since it’s my belief that such exposé-type shows exist mainly to enhance ratings, I wasn’t enthusiastic. If […]

Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture

Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture is a centuries-old practice, with evidence of use by the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) empress and concubines. This is a gentle, safe, and effective method of combatting signs of aging and erasing years from your face while enhancing your health and beauty from within. Acupuncture offers numerous benefits to those wishing to […]

Should I Get The Flu Shot?

It’s time again to ponder the flu immunization. When it comes to flu shots, I take a far more conventional approach than many patients at WholeHealth Chicago expect of a doctor who considers himself alternative/integrative. After reviewing some of the popular online alternative medicine newsletters warning people away from flu shots, it’s my sense that […]

Foods That May Harm Your Brain

Posted 02/03/2014 This intriguing idea is the lead article in this week’s Medscape Internal Medicine, a newsletter directed to internists like myself. It’s genuinely refreshing to read research that doesn’t extol some new pharmaceutical, but rather encourages simple changes in how we eat to prevent and even treat common emotional problems. Before I get to […]

Fresh Approaches To Fatigue and Fibromyalgia, Hormone Update, and A New Book on Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

For the millions who suffer with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, I’m pleased to report some worthy breakthroughs in the past few weeks. First, from the American College of Rheumatologists meeting in San Diego: Speaker and Tel Aviv physician Jacob Ablin, MD, described what I believe is a long-overdue paradigm shift in the diagnosis and treatment […]

Fruitcake, Genes, and Exercise: A Spooky Holiday Story

Starting around Thanksgiving and generally ending on January 2, we’re surrounded by too much food. Many of us who spent 2013 really (really!) trying to lose weight and eat healthfully dread the havoc these dark December days can wreak on our bodies. It’s agonizingly easy to add some pounds. Then, come January, we despair at […]

Catherine’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Catherine, a pale thin woman in her thirties, was into her third year with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). She’d been “everywhere,” including the Mayo Clinic, but no one had been able to answer her question: why am I ill? All treatments, conventional and alternative, had given her only temporary relief before they stopped working or […]

Four Reasons To Like Obamacare

Like everyone who works in health care, I’m both excited and nervous about what the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, will mean for both patients and practitioners. I like to view my excitement as an optimistic one, similar to the way people must have felt in the 1930s when Social Security guaranteed […]

Hidden Food Sensitivities

Let me begin this case study health tip with some related background. Girding their corporate loins for the arrival of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health insurance industry has taken some predictable steps to prepare for 35 million new enrollees, many of whom, having had no health care most of their lives, are probably […]