When I was in pre-med (back in the Pleistocene Era, to many of you), I worked as a lab technician in a small hospital. All those blood and urine tests you’ve had whose results are now fully automated were once processed slowly and painstakingly by hand (mine among them). The so-called metabolic profile of about 20 tests that today takes a few seconds to complete would have occupied me for nearly a full workday.
Category: Integrative Medicine
Integrative medicine is an approach to healing and wellness that combines the practices and treatments of conventional medicine with those of alternative medicine.
Biography as Biology
I’d first come across this phrase during a lecture by psychologist and medical intuitive Carolyn Myss, PhD, at a meeting of the American Holistic Medical Association and later reading some of her books, especially Why People Don’t Heal. In it she explores the common problem of people with chronic symptoms and negative test results, delving into how these symptoms develop and what might be done to help them.
Another Mystery Rash
In last week’s Case of the Mysterious Rash, a young man’s near-daily eruption of hives turned out to be triggered by a latex sensitivity he’d developed while walking the sandy beaches of Hawaii wearing rubber flip-flops.
This brings to mind another patient. Liz, too, had seen a bevy of dermatologists, none of whom could identify the culprit behind her hives. Liz knew from her internet research that the trigger is discovered in only about 60% of cases. Still, she persevered. There had to be something behind her rash, which had been coming and going for years.
The Case of the Mysterious Rash
Although dermatologists are very good at what they do–glance at a rash, make a diagnosis, and write a prescription–it has always (very mildly) irked me that they do this so quickly.
Flu Shots, Mercury, and Ideologic Medicine
I must say I was surprised by the degree of hostility I received when I recommended flu shots.
Should I Get the Flu Shot?
When it comes to flu shots, I admit I take a far more conventional approach than many patients at WholeHealth Chicago and regular readers of these Health Tips might expect of a doctor who calls himself “alternative” or “integrative.” I’ve recently been reading some of the alternative medicine newsletters online warning people away from flu shots. The conclusion often seems to be “…and I’ve got this product you can buy instead.”
Bedbugs! (and a PS on Ticks)
I could sense anxiety in her e mail: These…things…on my skin. I don’t know what they are. Red itchy blistery things. They just appeared. Because they’re all in a line up my leg, a friend said she thought it might be shingles and to contact you.
Fibromyalgia: An Almost Natural Approach
One of the best ways to envision fibro is as a generalized anxiety disorder of the muscles, initially triggered by a stressful event and then perpetuated by the pain of the muscles themselves.
Preventing and Treating the Flu
All in all, the news is generally good about H1N1 (swine) flu. We’ve got both a vaccine to prevent it and an antiviral prescription medicine to treat it. Epidemiologists have concluded that if you had the “regular” flu last spring, you actually have some protection from this year’s epidemic of both regular and H1N1 flu. The odds are in your favor that you won’t have two bad flu years in a row.
Functional Medicine
Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:
Second Opinions
Second Opinions
A lot of my patients recently are relating stories of having surgery that I regard as unnecessary. More charitably, these are surgical procedures whose chance for producing symptom relief is iffy at best.
Most of my fellow internists do believe that too much surgery is being performed, and that the symptoms people are hoping surgery will cure can often be handled by lifestyle changes instead.
Thinking Out of the Box
Posted 06/23/2009 Patients linked me to a couple of interesting articles last week, one from Newsweek (a magazine I thought no one read anymore) bashing the health advice given on Oprah’s TV show as harmful to your health because it was unscientific and unproven. The other, a thoughtful rebuttal by Dr. Deepak Chopra, was posted […]
Natural Healing from Trauma
Click here for the Health Tip link. Since the Vietnam War, there has been a growing awareness that modern warfare produces terrible psychological wounds. Last year, a RAND corporation study found that 20% of soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That’s 300,000 soldiers. PTSD symptoms typically include nightmares, […]
Osteopathy
Osteopathy is a holistic approach to the practice of medicine. It emphasizes that all systems of the body are interrelated and that any adverse changes in one part of the body may impair the functioning of other systems or organs.
Naturopathy
Naturopathy is a distinct system of medicine that is based on a belief in the healing power of nature–and especially in the body’s innate ability to fight disease and heal itself. Practiced by naturopathic doctors (also known as naturopaths or N.D.s), it uses a wide range of natural treatment methods, rather than drugs or surgery, to stimulate the body’s own healing powers. Among the therapies many naturopaths frequently prescribe are diet and lifestyle modifications, nutritional supplements, homeopathy, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, detoxification, spinal manipulation, and more.
Energy Psychology
Energy Psychology is the name of a family of therapeutic methods that address personal, psychological, emotional, and increasingly, physical, issues by working with the human vibrational energy matrix. Typically, energy psychology treatment focuses on disturbances on the meridian, chakra, or biofield level. One of the more popular forms of energy psychology looks like psychological acupressure.
Chiropractic
The best known and most widely used alternative therapy in the United States today, chiropractic focuses on the manipulation of the spine and other joints to help treat a variety of problems involving bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an ancient technique in which a skilled practitioner inserts hair-thin needles into specific points on the body to prevent or treat illness. Practiced for over 2,500 years in China, where it originated, acupuncture is part of the holistic system of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which views health as a constantly changing flow of energy, or qi (pronounced “chee”). In TCM, imbalances in this natural flow of energy are thought to result in disease. Acupuncture aims to restore health by improving the flow of qi.
Alternative Approaches To Everyday Problems
After practicing conventional medicine for years and years, now that I’m working with a variety of alternative practitioners, it’s very satisfying to be learning new ways to treat many everyday illnesses, especially those that mainstream medicine doesn’t have much luck with. It was a very humbling experience to observe how other practitioners, outside the “select” […]
Bioidentical Hormones
If you’re miserable from menopause symptoms, give serious thought to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). You may not realize it, but a diabetic using insulin is using hormone replacement therapy, with the hormone is insulin. Taking Synthroid for an underactive thyroid is hormone replacement, too. Is there a problem with replacing your sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, when you’re suffering because their levels have gone into the free-fall of menopause?