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Welcoming Sandra Subotich to WholeHealth Chicago

Normally, when I write a welcome Health Tip announcing a new WholeHealth Chicago practitioner, I go right to the person’s biography to illuminate why you might consider making an appointment. Dr. Sandra is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and her bio is rich with detail, so I’m saving it for the end. First, […]

Your Body Keeps Score

This may be an emotionally difficult Health Tip for some of you. Imagine you’re a small child and for as long as you can remember, no one’s face has ever lit up with a smile when you walked into a room. In fact, to avoid being struck by a family member, you’ve learned a variety […]

Heal Your Gut…Now

Last week I discussed how naturopathic and functional medicine practitioners usually begin their healing process (and prevent future health troubles) with careful attention to that 30-foot food tube meandering through you from your lips to your anus. The essence of good gut health is essentially how well you’re digesting, absorbing, and using the food you […]

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 […]

Chronic Lyme Disease: Best Testing, Best Treatment

Last week I suggested if you’ve been suffering longstanding but otherwise unexplained symptoms, a long-ago tick bite might be an overlooked possibility and you could now be dealing with chronic Lyme disease. I added that your recovery may well be delayed by some totally unnecessary and immature bickering among physicians about the correct name for […]

Chronic Lyme Disease? Me? Are You Serious?

Yes, I am serious. These days, from what we’re learning about Lyme disease (more about its specific terminology later), anything is  possible. If you regard yourself as healthy and were asked, “Overall, how do you feel?” and you answered “Just fine, thanks,” then Lyme in any form is very unlikely and testing you would be […]

Ozone Therapy: What It Is and How It’s Used

I’ll spare you a migraine. Don’t google “ozone therapy” as you’ll get 2.1 million results in 0.35 seconds. And while this is a mere fraction of what happens when you search for “migraine” (80 million in 1.19 seconds), just reading about the controversy over ozone therapy in first 20 entries might be enough to give […]

A Good Schvitz: Alternative Medicine At Its Finest

Head west on Division from Ashland and in the 1900 block, on the north side of the street, you’ll see a building that looks like an old bank. While the neighborhood was once a bit risky, it’s now completely safe, upscale, and laden with the telltale sushi places, sports bars, and coffee houses of urban […]

Healing Adrenal Fatigue

In last week’s Health Tip I described the exhausted state of Patricia, dragging herself through the day and crashing completely in the afternoon. At first, Patricia was oddly supercharged in the evening, unable to relax or sleep. Later, this energy burst vanished and she simply couldn’t sleep. She was tired all the time. Before her visit with […]

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 […]

Making Sense of “Controversial” Diagnoses

I’m warning you in advance. You’re entering a minefield here, with explosive views among seemingly conservative health care professionals. At least wear a helmet. Protective eyewear wouldn’t hurt either. You wouldn’t think a slew of conditions you’ve heard about (including chronic Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic Epstein-Barr, toxic mold syndrome, food sensitivities, intestinal […]

The Neurochemistry of the Blasey Ford-Kavanaugh Hearings

Over the years here at WholeHealth Chicago, we’ve treated thousands of patients, mainly women, for chronic physical and emotional symptoms that produce no positive test results. Our patients have been told by multiple doctors that nothing can be found wrong with them, but as we explore their biographies we find that many problems have roots […]

Porochista Khakpour’s Ongoing Battle With Lyme

In novelist Porochista Khakpour’s memoir Sick she describes her struggle with chronic Lyme disease and her uphill battle with the US healthcare system. Likely she had been bitten as a child by a long-forgotten tick, which is quite the usual case, the average age of acquiring Lyme disease being about 11. As a result of […]

The Stealth Bug From Hell: Chronic Lyme Disease

Last week we discussed the stealthy nature of Lyme and other infectious organisms, like chickenpox. To start, this week I’ll say by now everyone should be familiar with the basics of avoiding acute Lyme disease. When you’re in the woods or tall grass wear long pants tucked into socks and a long-sleeved shirt, spray DEET […]

Chronic Lyme, Stealth Organisms, And You

Over the past several months I’ve been reading memoirs of patients with chronic Lyme disease. When the victim is a celebrity (Ally Hilfiger, Kelly Osbourne), she’ll land a contract and a book tour with a mainstream publisher. When the victim just lives down the block but believes she has something important to say, she’ll self-publish […]

Controversial Diagnosis #6: Chronic Lyme Disease

Since no one argues about the existence of Lyme disease, right up front you should know that the controversy here centers on the word “chronic.” In my view, the arguments among physicians about whether or not such an entity exists are becoming a bit ridiculous. First, let’s briefly cover acute Lyme disease. Although certain states […]

Controversial Diagnosis #2: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

In the mid-1980s, two outbreaks of what appeared to be infectious mononucleosis appeared in the US. Unlike typical mono, which caused exhaustion for a few weeks, people with this type were left in a permanent state of fatigue, with low-grade fevers, swollen lymph glands, muscle aches, and poor focus/concentration. In some cases, the fever and […]

Controversial Diagnosis #1: Fibromyalgia

I encountered my first significant controversial diagnosis when we opened WholeHealth Chicago in the mid-1990s. The concept of combining conventional and alternative medicine was new to the Midwest and right away we began seeing patients who came to us with chronic symptoms but no solid diagnosis. One group that stood out was made up of […]

Pain Management Specialists Get A Reality Check

The front-and-center coverage of America’s opioid crisis is certainly affecting the two groups most involved: physicians and people in chronic pain. There are so many rules and restrictions on opioid prescribing that many physicians simply don’t bother any more, referring their chronic pain patients to pain management (PM) specialists. As well-intentioned as PM physicians may […]

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 […]