I need to complete the chronicle of Keith Alan Lasko, MD, begun last week in my Health Tip, “Pigs At A Trough“, with the story of the physician who wrote, The Great Billion Dollar Medical Swindle some 45 years ago and then seemed to vanish. But completely disappear? Hardly. Based on what I’ve been reading online, it’s a safe […]
Category: Health Insurance Issues
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 […]
Weight Loss Surgery: A Health Tip For The Seriously Obese
I know most of you reading these Health Tips are health oriented, possibly a little overweight, some post-pregnancy and others due to Covid inactivity, nothing too serious. But if you happen to know someone who’s seriously obese, this Health Tip could change their lives. Consider finding a way to get this information to them. […]
Introducing Our New WholeHealth Supplement Plans
If you’re a WholeHealth Chicago patient, you’ve likely noticed that we review your list of nutritional supplements during each appointment. Conventional doctors ask what prescription meds you’re taking (and of course we do too), but virtually never solicit a list of supplements. Since our area of expertise lies precisely there, it’s important for us to […]
A Genuinely Useful Blood Test
Many a time, in person or via phone, someone will say a variation of “Look, I’m taking all these vitamins and minerals but I really don’t know what I’m doing. I think I’m eating right, but I might have some vitamin or mineral deficiencies I know nothing about and I don’t know the consequences.” This […]
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 […]
Covid-19 Testing: What Will It Cost You?
The short answer is that as of this writing—9 am Sunday, March 8, 2020–no one seems to know. Two laboratory giants, LabCorp and Quest, are distributing tests next week, probably enough for our immediate needs. Vice president Pence, appointed by the president as the Covid-19 czar, has said “With regard to the cost, let me […]
Paying A Lot More At Walgreens (and Sometimes CVS Too)
At WholeHealth Chicago, we really do try to avoid prescribing prescription drugs whenever we can, opting instead for lifestyle changes that can keep you away from a chemical pill you might have to take for the rest of your incarnation. But sometimes…because we won’t play games with your health you’ll leave with instructions to pick […]
Ten Drugs Doctors Should Consider De-Prescribing
Physicians use the word polypharmacy when a patient is taking five or more prescription drugs daily. A recent survey showed that half of women Medicare recipients were taking five or more drugs daily, and 12% of them were taking ten (!) or more. New patients frequently arrive at WholeHealth Chicago carrying bags stuffed like piñatas […]
Diagnostic Tests Chart Path To A Healthful Longevity
Let me start with a piece of disappointing news. You know that battery of blood tests ordered by your family doctor or internist during your dutiful check-up? That complete blood count (CBC), comprehensive metabolic profile (CMP), and so forth? All of them are pretty useless. Yes, they’re almost always covered by insurance, so they’re free, […]
Director of IV Therapies Katie McManigal, BSN, ANP
Most people at some point in their lives have had an intravenous (IV) line. An adept nurse warned you about the tiny pinch of the needle as it was smoothly inserted and taped in place. Then the fluid dangling above your head slowly started making its way through a tube and into your body. IVs […]
Are Generic Drugs Different? You Bet!
Bob lay wide awake at 2 AM, wondering if he’d even taken his Ambien. Melissa’s hands and feet felt cold and she was losing hair. She knew these underactive thyroid symptoms well and quickly scheduled an appointment to ask about increasing what she thought was her Synthroid prescription. Despite enjoying a relatively calm life, Peggy’s […]
Case History: The Madness of Overmedication
You’d think knowing that the fourth leading cause of death in the US is correctly-taken prescription drugs would push physicians to prescribe fewer of them. But the facts haven’t entered the collective brain of the medical profession. Big Pharma advertising controls both that brain and yours with its ubiquity of magazine, internet, and TV ads […]
A Lifetime Of Experience With Abortion
The past two years of a Trump administration have produced an ugly upsurge in controversy over women’s rights, from the serial sexual predation revelations of the #MeToo movement to yet another state following the lead of the 25 white male Republicans (for their photos, click here) who voted to ban abortion in Alabama and send […]
Pushing Your Wellness Exam Into The 21st Century
Patients ask me, “What about those wellness exams my health insurance company says I’m entitled to every year at no cost?” Bad news. Let’s review one of life’s basic rules: you get what you pay for. What you receive during your short wellness visit (what many consider a sacrosanct ritual that boosts longevity) is little […]
Medical Flip-Flopping
I don’t know how you all keep from going slightly bonkers over the endless reversal of opinion from the “experts” in the world of medicine. Over the last few years, medical journals/websites (and the newspapers nobody subscribes to anymore) have reported policy changes on issues that I personally was just beginning to wrap my head […]
Best Financial/Health Advice Part 4: Prescription Drugs
For Part 3 in this series, click here. I know you’re all tired of the word collusion and especially the notion of government collusion, but let’s face facts. If there’s any single part of our egregiously expensive healthcare system in which the US federal government has given carte blanche to a single industry to rob […]
Best Financial/Health Advice Part 3: Which Health Insurance Is Best For You?
For Part 2 in this series, click here. Fifty years ago, health insurance worked like this: you went to your doctor, whose office was above a small drugstore or in a Michigan Avenue building. You paid cash for your visit. For larger medical expenses, like surgery or having a baby, Blue Shield paid your doctor […]
Best Financial/Health Advice Part 2: Understanding Insurance
For Part 1 in this series, click here. A little history is required in order to grasp how we got here. Until the arrival of Medicare in 1965, the only health insurance available was Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a network of not-for-profit companies founded in 1929, Blue Cross covering hospital charges, Blue Shield physician fees. Then, […]
The Best Piece of Financial Advice You’ll Ever Receive: Stay Healthy
The title of this piece should be in quotation marks because that advice is not my own. Based on my ineptness, I never give financial advice to anyone. Stock tips? I’m a Cumaean Sibyl in reverse. If ever money or finance come up in conversation, people who know me head for nearest exit in order […]