I’ve always been intrigued by glandular therapies, in which dried animal endocrine gland is used to treat a variety of medical conditions. And while I appreciate their medical benefits (like everything, some work better than others), even more interesting is their role in the history of medicine over the past century. Just when I thought […]
Category: Knowledge Base
My Colonic
I know. You’re thinking, “Do I really need to read about Dr. E’s colonic irrigation this morning, sitting here with my latte and bran muffin?” Well, I haven’t written anything about colonics for quite awhile, but recently I learned the Illinois Division of Professional Regulation (DPR) wants to close the offices of the dozen or […]
Digital Excess and Cognitive Decline
Try this experiment. Sit somewhere unobserved, like a Starbuck’s or a doctor’s waiting room, and just watch people. If you see someone sitting alone, likely she’ll be checking her smart phone or laptop or plugging into music. People sitting in groups of two or more will interrupt themselves to glance at their phones, text-checking. If […]
Alternative Medicine and Cancer
Right up front, let me say if alternative medicine therapies could cure cancer they wouldn’t be alternative. Conspiracy theory alert: there is no plot on the part of oncologists, radiation therapists, pharmaceutical companies, et al. to keep lifesaving alternative therapies just beyond your reach so they can control your lives (and pocketbooks). If the mainstream […]
All Hail The Bean!
What a pleasant surprise to open this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine and find the results of a trial on the benefits of eating legumes–beans, lentils, and chickpeas. This was a real clinical trial, working with a group of people who had mild Type 2 diabetes. During the three-month study period, half the enrollees ate […]
Supplements I Take
Occasionally when I’m up in our apothecary someone asks “What supplements do you take, Dr. E.?” Usually I’m too rushed to answer more than, “Oh, a bunch of stuff. Seems to work. I’m still here. If you’re curious, just ask,” referring to whoever’s managing the apothecary counter. She knows what I take because my supplement […]
Multivitamins Prevent Cancer
The medical profession has always been very reluctant to acknowledge that vitamins are useful for anything except treating vitamin deficiency diseases, even when confronted with evidence to the contrary. This negativism toward vitamins begins in medical school, where doctors-in-training are indoctrinated with phrases like “Vitamins end up in the toilet,” “Anyone eating a healthy diet […]
Helmet-Free Biking (Sometimes)
Chicago is in the process of selecting where to locate some 300 racks for its new bike-sharing program, delayed until Spring 2013 by politics (which will come as no surprise to any true Chicagoan). Modeled after similar programs in Canada and Europe, the bike-share program is simple. The racks are stocked with rental bikes. Swipe […]
A Step Forward for Acupuncture, Four Decades Too Late
Probably few of you remember that at one time there was virtually no acupuncture available in the US. Until the late 1970s the phrase “Why not try acupuncture?” simply didn’t exist. In 1971, when President Nixon made his historic visit to the People’s Republic of China, his press secretary James Reston experienced acupuncture for post-operative […]
Why A Wellness Check Won’t Keep You Well
For many years, you couldn’t use your health insurance for a check-up. The attitude of health insurance companies was essentially that they were available when you got sick, period. But if you were just fine? “Don’t call us.” To make their point especially clear, if you did visit your doctor for a check-up and she […]
Chronicle of a Death
A very disturbing article, the likes of which I’ve never read in all my years as a physician, appeared in a recent issue of the AMA’s Archives of Internal Medicine. Written by Neil Holtzman, MD, a Johns Hopkins-based pediatrician, it describes the circumstances surrounding the untimely death of his beloved wife of many years, Barbara […]
You, the Wonderful One-Hoss Shay
Back in the 19th century, the physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote the cheerful poem “The Deacon’s Masterpiece or The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay.” The poem tells of a deacon who wanted to build a perfect shay, a popular two-wheeled carriage drawn by a horse, one that would last 100 years. He did so, […]
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and Your Liver
A recent issue of Hepatology, a medical journal devoted to liver diseases, featured a lengthy discussion about acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol and many other medicines.
Acetaminophen is sold both over-the-counter and by doctor’s prescription, and more than 600 products now contain it. The conclusions of this article are definitely worth sharing with you.
A Good Night’s Sleep
You may have discovered as you travel this weary road of life that you’re not sleeping quite as well as you did as when you were younger. Gone are the glory days when you fell asleep listening to a bedtime story and then, suddenly, it’s morning! What happened? “Why,” you ask (and probably too often), […]
The Two-Bag Syndrome
During my training as a physician, and there’s no reason to believe this has appreciably changed for young doctors now, I was taught that if you saw a patient in your office for a medical problem of any sort she’d leave dissatisfied if she didn’t receive a prescription. “Reaching for your prescription pad,” the professor […]
Should You Keep Taking Fish Oil?
The moment I saw the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), in which a group of cholesterol research physicians from Greece tell the world that fish oil supplements don’t prevent heart disease, I knew I’d be receiving calls and e-mails asking about it. I wasn’t mistaken. Any reasonable person would leap […]
Are You The Canary in Our Coal Mine?
The canary in the coal mine had its literal origins in the mining industry. In order to test for toxic gases, miners would lower a caged canary into a mine shaft. Bringing up a dead songbird meant humans wouldn’t be descending that shaft. The metaphor remains apt because, even today, some of us are the […]
Belly Health, Rosacea, and A Starring Role for Mites
You might want to wash your hands before reading this. Start by placing your fingertip to your cheek. Go ahead, really. Now slowly move it toward your lips and into your mouth, paying attention to the uninterrupted inward turn of skin as it changes from cheek to lip to mucous membrane. You probably never thought […]
The HCG Diet Actually Works
I imagine diet books began appearing worldwide shortly after the Gutenberg Bible hit the shelves. And ever since, physicians, nutritionists, alchemists, personal trainers, and others have attempted to convince us that their diet is the one that will change everything. All diets fail for the same reason, an assertion I base on my experience both […]
Case Study: 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 […]