If you’re of a certain age, hearing the words “Dow Chemical” will send a chill right down your spine. Dow’s two most notorious (and lucrative) products, napalm and Agent Orange, were heavily used during the Vietnam war. Napalm was a flammable liquid, a mixture of a gelling agent and gasoline that, when sprayed, stuck to […]
Category: Healthy Lifestyle
Achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can include visits with a lifestyle medicine provider, nutrition counseling, meal planning, stress management and exercise and sleep plans.
Disappointments With Testosterone
For 80 (!) years physicians have prescribed testosterone to men without being certain if it actually had any effect other than raising testosterone levels. The only FDA-approved indication for testosterone is pathological hypogonadism, in which there’s an actual disorder of the male reproductive system that results in the body not producing enough testosterone. Examples are […]
Worrisome Dementia Report For Women and Steps To Take
We’ve always known there was a higher rate of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in women than in men, initially attributed to the fact that women live longer and that the decline in mental function occurred with age. This turned out to be wrong. At 65, a woman has a greater than one-in-six chance of […]
Nutritional Supplement Shotgun Therapy
I once had a new patient arrive with her forms completed, a stack of medical records under her arm, and a large bulging gym bag in tow, saying “I brought all the supplements I’m taking. I’m hoping you can suggest a few I might not need.” One by one, she placed bottles and jars of […]
Navigating Your Health Care Without Going Broke
Last week I talked about the problem many of you are facing with skyrocketing insurance premiums and deductibles so astronomical you wonder if you have any health insurance at all. We got into this fine pickle because: US healthcare prices are the highest in the world. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare), […]
Your Doctor’s Tunnel Vision Is Harmful To Your Health
I can’t find the source of this quote. Maybe philosopher Bertrand Russell, but I’m not sure. Once, when asked how he’d respond if given evidence that went totally against something he’d believed for years, he answered, “I would change my mind, of course. What, sir, would you do?” It’s too bad the same can’t be […]
The Life-Changing Magic of Getting Rid of Your Late Aunt’s Stuff
I’d been reading with real fascination about the Japanese writer Marie Kondo and her worldwide bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, when I received word that my 93-year-old aunt was at Death’s Door. I flew to Florida and must say she had as peaceful an end as anyone could hope for, in a hospice […]
Physicians And Empathy
I recently read an essay by a woman who described her experiences being employed as a medical actor. She’d been hired, along with some retirees, local theater majors, and a few people who were just curious, to play the role of patient in a training program for a local medical school. To start, she was […]
Will You Live Another Five Years?
Of course you might not want to know the answer to that. Or, having worked diligently on healthful eating and regular exercise, you may want to know if it will all pay off. Now, in a joint project between Swedish statisticians and a half million (!) volunteers in the UK, there’s a simple questionnaire that […]
The WholeHealth Chicago Wellness Exam
The WholeHealth Chicago Wellness Exam Patients new to WholeHealth Chicago, along with patients I’ve not seen for a while because they’ve felt good and sensibly wanted to avoid the health care system, often ask for a wellness check-up when they schedule an appointment. You’ve probably had variations of these exams throughout your life: kicking and […]
What Having A Medical Team Actually Means
It’s quite common for a new WholeHealth Chicago patient filling out our forms to answer the “How can we help?” inquiry with “I’m seeing too many doctors and they don’t communicate with each other” or “I want all my health care in one place with one doctor who knows me.” Having worked as part of […]
Two Pleasant Steps To Increase Longevity
I’m sure there’s been a moment in your life when, on the receiving end of yet another jeremiad from the medical profession advising against one more of life’s little pleasures you shouted “Enough already!” You think back on all your sacrifices: those delectable doughnuts, the Marlboros that partnered perfectly with your favorite cocktail, Big Macs, […]
Obsessing Over Regrets
We each have our own personal stash of regrets, and when they surface our language trends to the elegantly named counterfactual conditional phrasing: “If only I had married Bob, I would have been happy.” Well, you didn’t marry Bob (instead you married The Jerk), and in any case there’s no guarantee Bob isn’t his own […]
You’ll Never Relax In Front Of Your TV Again
More than 30 years ago, I read a book that influenced my entire life. Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television was much discussed, a best seller, and is still in print. The author, an ad executive named Jerry Mander, didn’t spend much time on program content. That had been addressed 17 years earlier when […]
Avoiding Antidepressants: A Clinical Study
Swallowing prescription drugs is our new reality. You, as patients, confront endless magazine, web, and TV ads from Big Pharma. I see these same ads tweaked gently to encourage me, the prescriber. But beyond what we all see, I get a lot more. My mailbox is crammed with Big Pharma junk. My office waiting room […]
“You Have Very Youthful Gums”
Head tilted back, mouth stretched to the max to accommodate fingers, cotton, and something metallic and vaguely medieval, my plaque was sandblasted to smithereens. Dr Mintz peered inside, cocked an eye, and remarked, “You have very youthful gums.” I cannot deny my unalloyed pleasure on hearing this. I’d been thinking about aging recently, recalling actress […]
Harvard Economists Warn (And So Do I): Beware Of Cowboy Doctors!
At some time in your life you’ll be faced with the very painful decision-making processes discussed in today’s Health Tip. Most likely it will involve an aged relative, but because death and dying are so random, you might be making similar decisions about your life partner, yourself, or (hopefully never) a child. You’ve probably seen […]
Young Docs Vote To Suppress Alternative Medicine Info
Disappointing, but not surprising. In what’s been called a thinly veiled rebuke of physician media star Mehmet Oz, MD, delegates at this month’s meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) supported resolutions that endeavor to hold physicians responsible for advice they dispense via the media. One of the resolutions, sponsored by residents and medical students, […]
Will You Live Another Five Years?
Of course you might not want to know the answer to that. Or, having worked diligently on healthful eating and regular exercise, you may want to know if it will all pay off. Now, in a joint project between Swedish statisticians and a half million (!) volunteers in the UK, there’s a simple questionnaire that […]
How Safe Is Your Sushi?
There’s been some completely unnecessary bickering between conventional and integrative physicians the past few years over mercury, and to a lesser extent lead and other toxic metals like arsenic and cadmium. While everyone agrees that these substances are poisonous, they aren’t unanimous on the best ways to diagnose and treat toxic metal poisonings. However, there’s […]